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JOAN OF ARC 



JOAN OF ARC 



By 
JOHN A. MOONEY, LL.D. 



FOREWORD 
By 

Blanche Mary Kelly 




New York 

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA PRESS, Inc. 

23 East Forty-first Street 



;:ilCif'S 



.vn 



Copyright, ipip 
The Encyclopedia, Press, Inc. 



©CI.A5 15 930 

JUN 19 I9!9 






Acknowledgment is made to the 
Apostleship of Prayer for per- 
mission to reprint the material 
formerly published in the Mes- 
senger of the Sacred Heart, 1897. 



FOREWORD 

The story told in this book is one of the most 
remarkable in the history of the world. Even 
naturally speaking, it is without parallel that a 
young, slight girl, an unlettered peasant, should 
step out of her obscurity and within the space 
of a few weeks should gain the ear of princes, 
the love and faith of a people, should rally a 
demoralized and defeated army , outmatch in 
strategy battle-seasoned warriors, and having 
restored a king to a rescued throne, go down 
herself to defeat and death. 

It is a story that has appealed to many pens, 
that has occasioned mockery and irreverence, and 
that many writing in all reverence have sought 
to explain on natural grounds. But if we are 
to accept any explanation at all, it must be that 
of Joan herself, namely, that she was "the child 
of God," His prophet. His Maid, His avenger, 
raised up at His good pleasure to do a given task 
in a given way. Without the Catholic Faith, 
she is inexplicable. More than on her sword, she 
relied on the Mass; more than bread, the sacra- 
ments were her sustenance. 

During the centuries since her death Joan has 
stood as the symbol of France, douce France la 



VI FOREWORD 

belle, the France of God and His Church. As 
religion declined and patriotism became sub- 
merged in internationalism, devotion to Joan 
waned; as the national spirit revived men rallied 
to the standard of the Maid of Orleans as they 
had rallied in her life-time, and to all that 
standard stood for, "everything that a good 
Christian should love." It is not too much to 
say that the devotion to her propagated by the 
works of one man, Charles Peguy, was not only 
instrumental in saving France in the Great War, 
but in saving many a soul alive that would other- 
wise have perished. 

For since these chapters, written from Joan's 
own standpoint, were first published we have been 
given to see great things; we have seen France 
again invaded by the enemy, Rheims, the beloved 
and the effigy of Joan herself, made targets of 
attack; we have seen France saved again, who 
shall doubt through what intervention of the 
Maid, and finally we have seen the all but final 
step in the process of her canonization taken by 
the Church to which her final appeal was made. 
Do not think that it is by mere poetic justice that 
this year shall see her raised to the honors of 
the altar. That is here which was manifest 
throughout her life — the finger of God. 

It is by something more than poetic justice, 
too, that these papers are given their share in 
the work of rehabilitation. Something of the 
fire of Joan's own chivalry pervades them, as well 



FOREWORD Vll 

as something of that hunger and thirst for jus- 
tice that has finally accorded her her place among 
those 

"White Horsemen, who ride on White Horses, 
the Knights of God." 
Dr. Mooney's fine scholarship and charm of 
style were never better exemplified than in this 
tribute to Joan of Arc, virgin and martyr. 

Blanche Mary Kelly. 
New York, 19 19. 

Feast of St. Joan of Arc. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

From Domremy to Chinon .... i 

From Chinon to Rheims 22 

From Rheims to Rouen 45 

From Dungeon to Scaffold .... 62 

From Rouen to Rome 81 

Rome's Justice . 102 

In Paradise 127 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Joan of Arc ...... Frontispiece 

facing page 
Joan of Arc Listening to the Voices, 
Bastien-LePage 1 6 

Joan of Arc Receiving Her Divine 
Mission 30 

Joan in Armor 42 

Equestrienne Statue of Joan of Arc. 
Fremiet 58 

Joan of Arc at the Battle of Jargeau, 
Lanson y2 

Triumphant Entry of Joan of Arc Into 
Orleans, Scherrer 86 

Joan of Arc at the Consecration of 
Charles VII, Ingres 100 

Joan of Arc at the Consecration of 
THE King, Lepneveu 114 

Execution of Joan of Arc at Rouen, 
Cordonnier 128 



JOAN OF ARC 



FROM DOMREMY TO CHINON 

"Jesu! Jesu! Jesu!" Ten thousand hear the 
piteous cry; and, through pity, some swoon; 
others, remorseful, shiver; many weep and 
moan. The soft-hearted have already fled. A 
gust of wind parts the greedy flames, disclosing 
the figure of a young girl. Upon a crucifix her 
eyes are fixed; a crucifix held aloft, outside the 
circle of the crackling fire, by a priest. Now 
the girl is hidden from sight, by the fagots' 
ruddy blaze, rising higher and higher. Even 
the hardened English soldiers blench, as the 
scent of burning flesh is diffused. Again, out 
of the fire, a voice issues; a firm, a confident 
voice: "My mission was from God. Jesu! 
Jesu!" 

The end is near. Only agony could inspire 
the beseeching cry : "Water ! blessed water !" — a 
vain cry. Not a man or woman, though human 
feeling prompted, dare risk the proffer of a 
single drop of water to soothe the victim's soul 
or body. One English soldier responded to the 



2 JOAN OF ARC 

appeal by flinging a dry fagot into the glowing 
fire. Choking, dying, once more the voice in- 
vokes the Saviour: "J^su! Jesu!" and the writh- 
ing girl's last breath is expended in uttering 
that dear name: "J^su!" 

The executioner gathers up the remains. A 
few bones he finds, and a little dust. These he 
looked for; but with terror does he perceive a 
heart; and he trembles as, touching it, he feels 
it warm; warm, not with the faint heat exhaled 
from wood-ashes, but with that generous ardor 
that smoulders in the embers of the Saint. 
Trusting not to the piled up fagots, he had 
nourished the flames with oil and sulphur. The 
heart should have been burned to a crisp. Now 
he remembers that, before mounting the pyre, 
the girl-victim had besought the bystanders to 
give her a cross ; and that, none being at hand, a 
gentle English soldier had formed one, roughly, 
out of a couple of bits of a stick. Kissing this 
rude cross devoutly, she had placed it over her 
heart, close to her flesh ! The wooden cross was 
no more; but the heart it had pressed, remained. 
Was this a sign? Neither the executioner, nor 
the curious onlookers, who wondered with him, 
dare say yes. Bones, ashes, and even the heart, 
were cast into the River Seine. An English 
cardinal, the cardinal of Winchester, so ordered. 

Did this young girl deserve the punishment 
and the indignities meted out to her on the 



FROM DOMREMY TO CHINON 3 

thirtieth of May, 1431, in the market-place of 
Rouen? Return with me to the scaffold! To 
yonder tall, charred stake, she was tied. Sur- 
mounting the stake is an inscription, still legible. 
Thus it reads: "J^^^^^^* who named herself the 
Maid, a liar, a pernicious woman, a deceiver of 
the people, a sorceress, a superstitious woman, 
a blasphemer of God, a presumptuous woman, 
an unbeliever, a boaster, an idolatrous, a cruel, 
a dissolute woman, an invocatrix of devils, apos- 
tate, schismatic and heretic." If the inscription 
be true, Jeanne, who named herself the Maid, 
was punished justly. But if the inscription were 
a lie! Lie it was; every word a lie; and the 
men who devised the inscription were liars, per- 
nicious men, deceivers of the people, presump- 
tuous and cruel. To-day, better than ever, we 
know the truth about Jeanne the Maid; and for 
the sake of truth, men of every land love to tell 
her story; and, most of all, those who, like her, 
glory in the cross, and believe and trust in Him 
whom her burning lips greeted, as her pure soul 
flew heavenward. 

How did it happen that English soldiers 
played leading parts in the painful scene we have 
just witnessed; and why did an English cardinal 
lend his presence to the burning of Jeanne, the 
Maid, in the market-place of Rouen? A com- 
plete answer to these questions would be the 
history of a hundred years of war between Eng- 



4 JOAN OF ARC 

lish and French kings. When William the Con- 
queror, Duke of Normandy, seized the English 
crown, he did not renounce his Norman duchy; 
and, after his death, his successors on the throne 
of England claimed the Norman dukedom as a 
right. Nor was this claim rejected by the 
French kings, who, however, required that, as 
dukes of Normandy, the English sovereigns 
should do homage, presenting themselves before 
the French kings, bareheaded, and without 
gloves, sword or spurs, as a mark of vassalage. 
In the course of time, through prudent mar- 
riages, the kings of England increased their 
possessions on the soil of France, acquiring and 
controlling a territory larger than that subject 
to the kings of France. A vassal more power- 
ful than his lord was a vassal to be feared. So 
Philip Augustus wisely argued; and he proved 
his conclusion true by dispossessing the English 
of three of their fiefs, leaving them but one, 
Guyenne. Of even this province, Philip the Fair 
deprived them a century later ; though, imagining 
that generosity could temper avarice, he made 
the mistake of returning it. 

Occasional intermarriages between the mem- 
bers of the English and French royal families 
should have assured the peace of both countries, 
but had no such effect. Indeed, one of these 
marriages brought only war and disaster upon 
France; for, upon the death of Charles the Fair, 



FROM DOMREMY TO CHINON 5 

in 1328, Edward III. of England claimed the 
French throne as the heir of his mother, Isabella, 
the sister of Charles and of his predecessor^ 
Philip v., known as the Long. Not confining 
himself to mere wordy demands, Edward in- 
vaded France with a well-equipped and well- 
trained army, and at Crecy (August 28, 1346) 
inflicted a grievous defeat upon the French. 
Philip VI. lost the port of Calais, and no French 
king recovered it until two centuries had passed. 
The Black Prince, Edward, proved a scourge 
more terrible than his father, Edward III. At 
Poitiers, ten years after Crecy, he vanquished 
an army in whose ranks the most valiant among 
the nobility of France fought to the death. 
There, too, he made a prisoner of the King, 
John IL, who, six years earlier, had succeeded 
Philip VI. A prisoner on English soil John re- 
mained during more than half of the eight fol- 
lowing years. 

His son, Charles V., showed more wisdom 
and more courage than his father, and with 
the aid of that romantic knight, Bertrand du 
Guesclin, drove the English out of almost all the 
territories they had seized during the preceding 
reign. Dying in 1380, he left a son but eleven 
years old to succeed him. At the age of twenty 
this son, as Charles VL, assumed the sovereignty 
that, during his minority, had been exercised by 
his uncles, the Dukes of Berry and of Burgundy, 



6 JOAN OF ARC 

but his administration of the royal power was 
short lived. Within four years of his elevation 
to the throne he lost the kingdom of his mind, 
not without cause, and the mad semblance of a 
king he remained for full thirty years. 

When Charles VI. was practically dethroned, 
his eldest son, Louis, being a minor, ruled but 
nominally until his death in December, 141 5. 
Then his brother John, also a minor, succeeded 
to the vain authority he inherited, and, on his 
death in 14 17, Charles, the youngest son of the 
insane Charles, acquired a title which, though 
it must have gratified a youth of fourteen, made 
him no more powerful than his brothers had 
been. 

Since his father's misfortune twenty-five years 
had elapsed; twenty-five years of ill fortune. 
Ambitious nobles, contending for the control of 
the persons of the young princes and for the 
possession of Paris, then as now the heart of 
France, had divided the people into warring 
factions. Seeing their chance, the English at- 
tempted to recover their lost territories. Indeed 
they hoped to gain the crown that Edward III. 
ambitioned. Led by the aspiring and gallant 
Henry V. a powerful army disembarked near 
the port of Harfleur on August 14, 141 5. After 
a month's siege Harfleur capitulated. Around 
the French princes the chivalry of France rallied 
only to meet at Agincowrt a defeat no less 



FROM DOMREMY TO CHINON 7 

calamitous than that of Crecy or of Poitiers 
(October 25). Still the English king feared to 
risk an advance and returned home to prepare 
for a new invasion. 

One of the most puissant and daring French 
nobles lent no aid to his country at Agincourt — 
John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. His 
father, Philip the Bold, had striven for suprem- 
acy in national affairs during the minority of 
the oldest son of Charles VI., thus opposing the 
clever but debauched Duke of Orleans. In the 
face of a rival, John was less timid than his 
father. He did not hesitate to connive at the 
murder of Orleans, and by this crime not only 
weakened his own position but also disrupted 
the country. Out of revenge the son of Orleans 
took the field and with him a powerful Southern 
noble, to whom he was allied by marriage, Ber- 
nard, Count d'Armagnac. In Paris and else- 
where the people were by turn Burgundians or 
Armagnacs, as interest, sentiment or passion 
moved them. When the youngest son of mad 
Charles VI. became Charles the Dauphin, Ber- 
nard d'Armagnac, whose party the new dauphin 
favored, ruled Paris; and through him Charles 
might have quickly united the country, were it 
not for the base act of a wanton woman. 

This woman was Isabeau of Bavaria, wife of 
the unfortunate Charles VI., and mother of the 
youth who was rightfully claiming recognition 



8 JOAN OF ARC 

as heir to the throne of France. Originally, 
Isabeau had supported the debauched Duke of 
Orleans against Philip the Bold; but in Novem- 
ber, 141 7, she conspired with John the Fearless 
against her own son. Having proclaimed her- 
self regent at Troyes, she appointed John her 
administrator, and, setting up a revolutionary 
government, kindled the flames of a civil war. 

In the name of this unnatural woman, who 
had been exiled from Paris on account of her 
scandalous behavior, the Burgundians ravaged 
the centre and the south of France; while the 
English King, taking advantage of the French 
Queen's treachery, returned into Normandy, 
where he campaigned victoriously. In May, 
1418, Paris fell into the hands of John and Isa- 
beau. Fortunately, young Charles escaped and 
established his government at Poitiers; but his 
daft father, Charles VI., remained a prisoner 
of his wife, Isabeau. As the English advanced, 
John of Burgundy, opened negotiations with 
Henry V. John was a self-seeking trickster. 
Once master of Paris, he tried to make terms 
with the dauphin, Charles. They met at Mon- 
tereau. Had they never met it could have been 
no worse for France. Neither one had confi- 
dence in the other. They disagreed. Their re- 
tainers fought, and John met a death similar 
to that of his old enemy, the Duke of Orleans. 
Meantime, at Rouen, the capital of Normandy, 



FROM DOMREMY TO CHINON 9 

Henry V., of England, was coining money bear- 
ing his name, and the title : King of France. 

Worse fortune was in store for the rightful 
heir to the throne. Philip of Burgundy, son of 
the murdered John, declared for the English; 
and so did his unwomanly ally, Isabeau. Nay 
more, she and Philip, and their helpless tool, 
Charles VI., signed a treaty, at Troyes, on May 
21, 1420, by which the king of England was 
acknowledged to be the legitimate heir of the 
insane king of France, and, during his lifetime, 
sole regent. Isabeau's daughter, Catharine, was 
betrothed to Henry V., with the understanding 
that their first child should wear a double crown : 
the crown of England and of France. Without 
delay, the marriage of Catharine and Henry was 
celebrated; and in the following December the 
royal pair made a solemn entry into Paris. 

Even after Crecy, or Poitiers, or Agincourt, 
who would have imagined that the brave, the 
glorious, the proud, the great nation should be 
thus humiliated! Still the rightful heir to the 
throne was not wholly discouraged. South of 
the Loire, the people were loyal. Aided by their 
Scotch allies, his forces won a notable victory 
at Bauge (March 22, 1421), where the Duke of 
Clarence, brother of the English king, lost his 
life. When, in June of the same year, Henry 
V. headed an army of twenty-eight thousand 
men, Charles might well fear for the future. 



10 JOAN OF ARC 

They closed him up in Bourges; but, at the 
darkest hour, hope returned. Word came of the 
death of Henry V., at Vincennes, on August 31, 
1422. Seven weeks later the unfortunate Charles 
VI. died. Displaying courage, if not confidence, 
his son assumed the title of King of France, six 
days' afterwards, on October 30. 

Of hope and courage, Charles VII. had need. 
The duke of Bedford, brother of Henry V., as 
a soldier and a politician, was second in ability 
only to that illustrious monarch. Having as- 
sumed the regency, and, in the abbey of St. 
Denis, amid the tombs of the French kings, 
having proclaimed king of France the infant son 
of Henry and Catharine, Bedford warred active- 
ly against Charles, defeating him often. Fortu- 
nately for Charles, though he was hampered by 
selfish and intriguing ministers, Bedford was no 
less impeded by a rash and ambitious brother, 
the Duke of Gloucester. Had it not been for 
Gloucester's passions, Charles would not have 
enjoyed three years of comparative peace. In 
1426, the English pushed forward, won, and 
then halted. Two years later, under the lead of 
the Earl of Salisbury, they carried everything 
before them. Between June and October, 1428, 
twenty-three strong places surrendered to them; 
and on the twelfth of October, they laid siege 
to Orleans, the key to the centre of France. 

Under the command of the famous Bastard 



FROM DOMREMY TO CHINON 11 

of Orleans, the inhabitants defended the city 
bravely; women showing no less courage than 
men. Fatally wounded eleven days after the 
opening of the siege, Salisbury died at the end 
of October; but his death did not lessen the 
efforts of the English. William de la Poole, 
earl of Suffolk, now directed the operations. 
Orleans is situated on the right bank of the 
Loire. Salisbury had fortified the left bank; 
Suffolk, crossing the river, entrenched himself 
on the right bank, and warily circled the walls 
of the city with strong forts. Failing to cap- 
ture Orleans by assault, he purposed starving 
it into submission. All winter the besieged de- 
fended, sallied, countermined. Spring came, 
bringing no hope. The French king offered 
only slight assistance. To provision the city 
was growing more and more difficult, as the 
English forts girdled the walls more closely. An 
attempt on the king's part to surprise a strong 
body carrying food to the besiegers, February 
12, 1429, was a sad failure. Despairing, the in- 
habitants of Orleans offered to surrender, not 
to the English, but to the Duke of Burgundy. 
Suffolk declined, saying that: "he had not 
beaten the bushes in order that others should 
catch the birds." 

His many trials, defeats, losses, discouraged 
Charles VII. He began to view the downfall 
of his dynasty as providentially ordained. A 



12 JOAN OF ARC 

tormenting suspicion had wormed itself into his 
mind and heart: Was he a legitimate son of 
Charles VI.? If he were not, should he not lay 
down his arms? He besought God to resolve 
this doubt, so that his course might be in accord 
with justice; yet the doubt remained. The peril 
of Orleans increased his anguish. Partisans 
were forsaking him; the royal treasury was 
empty. When Orleans should fall into the 
power of the English, how could he hope to 
hold even the mean remnant of a kingdom that 
still acknowledged his authority! Strong hands 
and courageous hearts there were, upon which 
he could count to the death; but, vainly sacri- 
ficing them, would not he be a coward? Thus 
disturbed, wavering, anxious, Charles passed his 
days in the castle of Chinon. The cause of the 
French king, the independence of the French 
people, the life of a grand nation, were in 
jeopardy. Who, but God, could save? 

On February 23, 1429, just eleven days after 
the rout of the royal army sent to aid the in- 
habitants of Orleans, six armed men, led by a 
girl — all a-horseback — ambled through the gate 
of Chinon. Though her hair was cut short, like 
a man's, and though she was accoutred exactly 
like a-man-at-arms — her lean breast and supple 
back covered with a cuirass; at her belt, on the 
one side, a dagger, on the other, a sword; in 
her right hand a lance — no observant, man or 



FROM DOMREMY TO CHINON 13 

woman, could have questioned the leader's sex. 
The completest armor never disguised a maid; 
and this girl was a maid. 

At Chinon they had reason for expecting her ; 
for, from a neighboring village, she had written 
to no less a personage than the king, saying: 
"I have travelled fifty leagues to be near you, 
and I have many excellent things to tell you." 
From Vaucouleurs to Chinon was a good fifty 
leagues, and only a brave girl would have dared 
the journey. The cities, the bridges on the route, 
were in the hands of the English, or of the Bur- 
gundians. A partisan of the French King ran 
great risks. At Vaucouleurs, friends had warned 
the girl. 'T do not fear men-at-arms," was her 
answer; "my way is prepared. Should there be 
enemies on the road, I have God, my Lord, 
who will open for me a path by which to reach 
the dauphin; for I was born to save him." 

They travelled by night; they sought unfre- 
quented or roundabout roads. The men-at-arms 
found the journey hard; but the girl did not 
complain. All day and every day, she was joy- 
ous, having one sole anxiety: to hear Mass. To 
be present at this holy office she hazarded her 
liberty more than once, though her male com- 
panions were more prudent. On the morning 
she wrote to Charles, she had been present at 
three Masses in a pilgrim church. As she 
journeyed, the beggars by the way had learned 



14 JOAN OF ARC 

to love her. For their sake, she was ready to 
borrow. 

"I have God, my Lord, who will open for me 
a path to reach the dauphin; for I was born to 
save him." A wonderful saying! A girl, born to 
save the defeated, despairing king of France — 
born, to save not merely a crown, but also a 
people, a nation. All that her words expressed 
and implied the girl-soldier meant. Nor had she 
waited until she reached Chinon, to affirm that 
she was chosen of God to do marvellous deeds in 
and for France. In the preceding year, accom- 
panied by a male relative, Durant Laxart by 
name, she had sought and obtained an inter- 
view with Captain Robert de Beaudricourt, who 
held Vaucouleurs in the interest of Charles VII. 
"Send word to the dauphin," said she to Cap- 
tain de Beaudricourt, ''that he must have cour- 
age, and that he must not, as yet, enter the field 
against his enemies; for God will send him suc- 
cor toward the middle of the coming Lent. The 
kingdom does not belong to him, but to my Lord, 
who desires to confide its guardship to him. 
The dauphin shall be a king, in spite of his 
enemies. I will lead him to Rheims, and there 
he shall be crowned." Then de Beaudricourt 
asked: "Who is your Lord?" And she made 
answer: "The King of Heaven." "Take this 
girl home to her parents!" exclaimed the cap- 
tain; "she is raving." 



FROM DOMREMY TO CHINON IS 

The captain's farewell to the girl who offered 
to lead Charles, in the face of the victorious 
English, up to and into Rheims, a city controlled 
by his enemies, and there to crown him King of 
France, was not a polite farewell. Still, it was 
as polite as the greeting with which the Captain 
welcomed her when she entered Vaucouleurs. 

Durant Laxart, having called on de Beaudri- 
court, and having told who he was, and who his 
companion was, and what she claimed to be, the 
captain summoned a priest, and together they 
went to the girl's lodging and forthwith exor- 
cised her, surmising that she was possessed by 
an evil spirit. Though she submitted, she could 
not help laughing as she said to the priest: "It 
would have been more sensible to hear my con- 
fession first." Probably she was better pleased 
at being called mad than she had been when 
they treated her as a child of the devil. 

From Durant Laxart, and from the girl her- 
self, the Captain learned the story of her life. 
Born on the sixth of January, 14 12, she was but 
a little more than sixteen years of age. Her 
birthplace was the village of Domremy, nigh to 
Vaucouleurs, on the border of Champagne and 
Lorraine. There her father, Jacques d'Arc, and 
her mother, Isabelle, simple peasants, esteemed 
for their industry and virtue, lived laboriously, 
comforted only by their three sons and two 
daughters. From their earliest years these chil- 



16 JOAN OF ARC 

dren were trained to labor and to fear God. Of 
the five, the daughter, Jeanne, had been noted for 
piety from her infancy. Loving work she was as 
expert with a spade as with a needle, could spin 
with the best, and was as trusty among the hills 
with the sheep as if under the eye of her mother. 
A joyous child, companionable and fond of play, 
Jeanne was even fonder of prayer. In the midst 
of a merry game she would slip away, kneel be- 
hind a hedge, breathe a prayer and return to be 
as merry as the merriest. To the Blessed Virgin 
she was especially devout. Near to Domremy 
were several chapels dedicated to our Lady. 
With a candle, a garland of field flowers, an 
orison, Jeanne embellished each altar. At all 
the offices of the village church she was faith- 
ful, and most exemplary in confessing and 
in receiving Holy Communion. Obedient to 
her parents, she was also a loving sister, a 
kindly neighbor, generous to the poor, tender to 
the ailing. All these adornments of womanhood 
Jeanne d'Arc had acquired without ever learn- 
ing the esteemed art of reading or of writing. 

These details may have interested de Beaudri- 
court, though it is more than probable that he 
knew many peasant girls no less virtuous or 
pious. However, this was not the whole of the 
story. In her thirteenth year — thus she told the 
captain — and often during the three years that 
had since passed, heavenly beings had app^ar^d 




JOAN OF ARC LISTENING TO THE VOICES 
Paiiitiiii/ hy Jules Bafitiev-Lepafie, Metropolitnn Museum, Neio York 



FROM DOMREMY TO CHINON 17 

to her and had spoken to her. Jeanne's home 
adjoined the parish church; and it was in the 
garden, close to the church wall, on a summer's 
day in 1425, at midday, that a glorious light 
shone on her, and out of the light issued a voice, 
saying: "J^^^^^> t)e good and pious, go often 
to church!" The resplendent light, the mys- 
terious voice, affrighted the girl, as, certainly, 
they would have affrighted you or me. Who 
spoke, she knew not. Whence came that in- 
describable radiance and the voice whose speech 
she could never forget? A second, a third time, 
she heard the voice, though perceiving no form. 
Then a form appeared, a commanding form ac- 
companied by a multitude of unearthly, though 
real, beings. Finally she grew into the know- 
ledge that the wondrous light she had first seen, 
more lustrous than the noonday sun, was but 
the shadow of the splendor of the Archangel 
Michael; the voice was the Archangel's voice; 
the multitude with him was a squadron of his 
immortal, invincible, army of angels. 

The mysterious voice, on that first summer- 
day, counselled her to be a Christian, and no 
more; but, as time passed, portentous words 
were spoken to her. She had heard of the wars. 
Her parents were loyal to the crown. Before 
her day, Domremy had suffered from the ene- 
mies of France. The history of her country, 
she knew well; the traditions were familiar to 



18 JOAN OF ARC 

her ; but one can easily understand that the peas- 
ant girl of thirteen was not prepared to assume 
that she had been selected to save France, to 
rout victorious armies, to make a king and unite 
a nation. Still, Michael, promising prudently, 
suggested much, and finally ordered. She had 
a mission from heaven, he said, to succor the 
King of France. During three years, the simple 
girl listened, trembled, wondered, feared. Two 
sainted women came to aid her: Catharine and 
Margaret. They encouraged her, calmed her. 
To neither mother, nor father, nor confessor, 
did she disclose her secret. Alone she bore her 
burden, day after day, year after year. A rare 
sacrifice was demanded of her by God, if her 
guides were trustworthy. The parental home, 
mere human love of every sort, she must re- 
nounce, if Michael, Catharine and Margaret 
spake true. Should she doubt? To prove her 
confidence in them and in their word, she made 
a vow of virginity. Come what may, hence- 
forward she is the Lord's. 

When, after three years of companionship 
with the Archangel and with Saints Catharine 
and Margaret, Jeanne first presented herself to 
Robert de Beaudricourt, at Vaucouleurs, it was 
not to please herself, or to satisfy an idle fancy. 
She would not have dared to take a step so un- 
becoming to a modest girl, were it not that the 
directing Archangel, and her guiding Saints as 



FROM DOMREMY TO CHINON 19 

well, had insisted, saying: "You must seek out 
Robert de Beaudricourt, and have him give you 
an armed escort to bring you to the dauphin; 
him you shall crown King at Rheims, and drive 
the foreigner from the kingdom." To St. 
Michael, to SS. Catharine and Margaret, Jeanne 
put a most natural question. "How," she asked, 
"shall I, who am only a peasant girl, give orders 
to men-at-arms?" Whereupon Archangel and 
Saints responded: "Child of God, great-hearted 
child, you needs must go; God will aid you." 

Dismissed by de Beaudricourt as one bereft 
of reason, Jeanne was not discouraged. She re- 
turned home. Her parents were unaware of 
her venturesome journey. She had left them 
to visit a cousin. As of old, she worked in the 
house and in the field; but the Saints were not 
silent. Indeed they commanded her anew to go 
forth and free the city of Orleans from the 
enemy. No longer could she resist. In the early 
part of January, 1429, once more she set forth, 
without saying a word to father or mother. 
Durant Laxart, who still had faith in her, ac- 
companied her to Vaucouleurs. There de Beau- 
dricourt was as obstinate as ever. The girl's 
claims were not lessened by time. "No one in 
the world," said she, "neither the king, nor the 
duke, nor the daughter of the King of Scotland, 
nor any one else, can recover the kingdom of 
France; from me alone shall it have aid, al- 



20 JOAN OF ARC 

though I had rather spin alongside of my poor 
mother; for such is not my condition in life. 
But I must go and do that; for so my Lord 
wishes." Then once again they asked: "Who 
is your Lord?" and she gave the same answer: 
"He is God." 

The people of Vaucouleurs saw Jeanne and 
heard her words ; and they believed in her. They 
noted her modesty, her piety, her sincerity. The 
soldiers trusted her; they had faith in her mis- 
sion. People and soldiers united to provide for 
her journey to the king, buying a horse, armor 
and arms. As she was called to do a warrior's 
work, Jeanne determined to dress like a man. 

When de Beaudricourt learned the temper of 
the people, he consulted the royal council; and 
at length, on February 23, permitted her to set 
out for Chinon, where Charles was playing 
king; nay, more, he presented her with a sword. 
Long before she reached Chinon the name of 
Jeanne the Maid was known in camps, villages, 
cities. At Orleans they had heard of her, and 
of her promise to raise the seige, and a deputa- 
tion of officers had been sent to meet her at 
Chinon and to report whether there was indeed 

reason for hoping. 

* * * 

Yes! It was this girl, Jeanne d'Arc, pious, 
charitable, gallant maid, that we saw amid smoke 
and flames in the market-place at Rouen. Her 



FROM DOMREMY TO CHINON 21 

heart it was that, red, firm, unburned, was flung, 
with the ashes of her bones, into the river Seine. 
Did she receive no mission from her Lord? 
Were Michael and Catharine and Margaret 
creatures of her imagination? Did some one 
else, some king or duke, save Orleans? Was 
her story, that she was chosen to crown the 
dauphin at Rheims, the fiction of a maddened 
brain? We shall see. Thus far we know her 
only as "a child of God, a great-hearted child." 
Surely "God will aid her" — at Chinon and else- 
where. 



II 



FROM CHINON TO RHEIMS. 

Jeanne the Maid, could she have had her way, 
would have met Charles VII. within an hour 
after her arrival at Chinon. Imagine then how 
impatiently she waited, during a whole fortnight, 
while the royal Council debated whether she 
should be admitted to the king's presence. 
Doubts were expressed as to the girl's sanity, 
and as to the saintliness of her inspiration. De 
Beaudricourt, was not alone in thinking that 
her prompter might be the devil. A committee 
of ecclesiastics was appointed to test her. Hav- 
ing done so, with much formality and caution, 
and being favorably affected by her manner and 
speech, they advised the king to grant the girl 
an audience. 

Into the grand hall of the castle, where a 

crowd of courtiers had assembled, the peasant 

of Domremy was led, on the night of March lo, 

1429. Purposely, the king bore no mark of 

royalty; still the Maid, who now saw him for 

the first time, picked him out at once saluting 

him with the words: "God give you good life, 

gentle prince." "What is your name?" Charles 

22 



FROM CHINON TO RHEIMS 23 

asked. "Gentle dauphin," she repHed, "my name 
is Jeanne the Maid, and by me the King of 
Heaven sends word that you shall be anointed 
and crowned at Rheims, and that you shall be 
lieutenant of the King of Heaven, who is King 
of France." Then she gave a proof that when she 
wrote to Charles of "the many excellent things 
she had to tell him," her words were not boast- 
ful. "I say to you, on the part of my Lord," 
said she, "that you are the true heir of France, 
and the son of the King. I am sent to you to 
conduct you to Rheims, in order that there you 
may be anointed, and crowned, if you so will." 

Why should this peasant girl publicly assure 
Charles that he was the legitimate son of the 
late king? How could she know of the torment- 
ing doubt locked up within the heart of Charles, 
and disclosed by him to God alone? All the 
secrets of which she had knowledge, Jeanne did 
not reveal at this first interview. A few days 
later, in the presence of Charles and of four of 
his confidants, having first sworn the latter to 
secrecy, she related that, on the first day of 
November, 1423, in the royal chapel at Loches, 
Charles had begged God to free his soul of the 
doubt of his legitimacy. Unless a messenger 
from God had disclosed this fact — for it was a 
fact — to Jeanne, she could have known nothing 
of it. If Charles desired a sign proving the 
Maid's heavenly mission, he had at least one. 



24 JOAN OF ARC 

Whatever the king's conviction, the royal 
Council still doubted. A second commission of 
ecclesiastics was appointed to question the girl, 
and a deputation of Friars Minor was despatched 
to Domremy, to inquire about her family, habits 
and reputation. Though the reports of both the 
friars and the doctors were favorable, the royal 
Council decided to carry her to Poitiers, where 
the king's parliament was in session. There an- 
other commission of theologians, professors, 
canonists and lawyers, catechized her and 
argued with her, displaying much art, learning 
and subtlety, as became men of prudence and 
of erudition, not unmixed with vanity. Members 
of parliament, courtiers, great ladies, visited her ; 
all observing, probing, and some spying. These 
official and private inquisitions ended in a gen- 
eral acknowledgment of Jeanne's piety, virtue, 
sincerity and intelligence. Without pronouncing 
her mission supernatural, the theologians, pro- 
fessors, canonists and lawyers declared that it 
was not impossible that God had sent her; and 
that, considering the alarming condition of 
France, the king not only might, but should em- 
ploy her against his enemies. 

During the month, and more, that Jeanne had 
been questioned, cross-questioned, sounded and 
curiously inspected, her heart was strained al- 
most to breaking; nor could she help resenting 
a method that seemed to her witless, if not ab- 



FROM CHINON TO RHEIMS 25 

surd. There was she, sent by God, vowed to 
Him — she who had left a dear mother, a good 
father, brothers, a sister, loved companions, the 
garden, the sheep, the fireside, home and her 
cherished shrines; she, a Maid, who — having 
dofifed maiden attire — donned armor, and risked 
a long and dangerous journey among men, among 
enemies — was eager to rescue the city of 
Orleans, to crown a king, to save France, and 
yet, instead of accepting her promptly, instead 
of following her lead and fighting the English, 
not a man had sense enough to do more than 
ply her with interrogatories, just as if she were 
trying for a university degree! She wept often, 
but it was when alone, kneeling before God. Fac- 
ing men she was calm, firm, fearless. Through 
prayer, she knew that God was with her; and 
that, therefore, she could not be overmatched. 
Assuming that Jeanne had no special aid from 
heaven, one could not help attributing to her 
rare gifts of mind. She was quick of under- 
standing, farsighted, ready of speech, direct, 
witty. The bachelors of law, the licentiates in 
theology, who were tempted to be smart at her 
expense, regretted, with reason, their callow 
impertinence. For hours at a sitting, solemn, 
dull clerics, bored her with questions as futile 
as that of Master Peter, who, though her faith 
in God was constantly expressed, asked her: 
"Do you believe in God?" Naturally, the more 



26 JOAN 0^ ARC 

he reflected upon her answer : "Better than you," 
the more he doubted her mission. "You say," — 
thus another learned ecclesiastic tried her — "You 
say that you have had a revelation that God de- 
sires to deliver the people of France from the 
evils that oppress them. If God so desires, being 
all-powerful, He has no need of the aid of men- 
at-arms." One can see the Maid's pitying look, 
as she answered: "In God's name the men-at- 
arms will fight, and God will give the victory." 
Once, aweary of their prosy inquiries, she ex- 
claimed : "I don't know A from B ; but I am sent 
by God to raise the siege of Orleans and to con- 
duct the king to Rheims, in order that there he 
may be anointed and crowned." 

In this answer, according to the books, she 
spoke of Charles as "the king"; but such was 
not her custom. Generally, she named him, "the 
dauphin," a title applied, at the time, to the heir 
to the French throne. As we have already seen, 
in 1422, six days after his father's death, Charles 
had assumed the title of king. Neither he, nor 
any of those who met Jeanne could help noting 
that she spoke of Charles as if he were, in 1429, 
no more than an heir expectant. They may 
have thought her ignorant of the meaning of 
the term she commonly used, but she disabused 
them. "Why do you call the king dauphin and 
not king?" she was asked at Poitiers. "I will 
not call him king" she replied, "until after he 



FROM CHINON TO RHEIMS 27 

has been anointed and crowned at Rheims, 
whither I have a mission to conduct him." There 
is a whole treatise on kingly government in 
Jeanne's speeches. Would that kings and 
peoples had learned from them! The King of 
Heaven, is indeed the sovereign of every land. 
The Christian who would be a lieutenant of the 
King of Heaven, should bear the King's sign on 
his forehead, before wearing a bauble crown. 
The gift of the King of kings, freely given. He 
may, at will, withdraw. What kings may lose, 
peoples may lose. The proud He puts down; 
the humble He uplifts. 

At Poitiers, as at Chinon and at Vaucouleurs, 
the people had not waited for the decision of 
Council or commission. They saw and noted the 
girl; devout, prudent, frank, great-hearted, 
showing more spirit than king or courtier. That 
she was heaven-sent they doubted not. When 
the royal Council recommended that Jeanne the 
Maid should be put in charge of an army corps, 
and sent to Orleans to victual the city and supply 
the besieged with arms, there was great rejoic- 
ing. A word had passed around and Durant 
Laxart was the authority. More than a year 
back, rumor said, Jeanne had spoken to Durant 
of an old prophecy, that he, and all his country- 
folk had heard again and again. Its purport was, 
that the Kingdom of France should be ruined 
through a woman, and then saved by a young 



28 JOAN OF ARC 

girl from Lorraine. Through a woman, Isabeau, 
the unnatural mother of Charles, had not the 
kingdom been ruined? And Jeanne the Maid, 
was not she from Lorraine? Seventeen is 
young, and Jeanne was but seventeen. 

From Poitiers they led her to Chinon, thence 
to Blois, and finally to Tours, where she arrived 
towards the end of April, 1429. During her 
stay at Blois, the king gave her a complete set 
of armor, and empowered her to organize a 
military staff becoming to a leader. On this 
staff she appointed her two younger brothers, 
Jean and Pierre d'Arc, who had affectionately 
followed her. As her chaplain she chose Jean 
Pasquerel, an Augustinian. Robert de Beaudri- 
court had presented her with a sword, when she 
set out from Vaucouleurs. At the suggestion 
of one of her saints, she put aside the captain's 
weapon and used another in its stead. The vil- 
lage from which, on the way to Chinon, Jeanne 
wrote to the king, was known as Ste. Catherine 
de Fierbois, and so it is called this very day. To 
the church, founded by Charles Martel and 
dedicated to Ste. Catherine, pious pilgrims were 
wont to resort. 

Of a morning, while at Tours, Jeanne sum- 
moned a skilful armorer. "Take this letter," 
said she, "to the priests of Ste. Catherine de 
Fierbois. Following my directions, they will find 
a sword buried behind the altar. Bring it to 



FROM CHINON TO RHEIMS 29 

me." The priests had never heard of the 
mysterious sword. However, they upturned the 
earth back of the altar, and, wonderful to relate, 
not far below the surface discovered a sword. 
The weapon was covered with rust. They 
cleaned the blade and polished the five crosses 
that ornamented the guard. Then the armorer 
carried the sword to Jeanne. Some folk said 
that Charles Martel himself had wielded the 
weapon; but Jeanne called it Catharine's sword. 
In the Maid's hands we shall see it do braver 
work than Charles Martel ever did, and better 
work, for, often as she fought, Jeanne never 
shed one drop of human blood. 

The battles she was to fight, in the name of 
the Lord, the Maid determined to wage only 
with the aid of Christian soldiers. And that no 
one should doubt upon whom she depended for 
victory, she gave orders for a standard having 
a white ground strewn with lilies, and on this 
ground a painted image of the God of Majesty 
throned on clouds, and bearing in His hand the 
globe; beneath, adoring, were two angels hold- 
ing lilies. Inscribed on the standard were the 
words: "J^^us, Mary." Another and a smaller 
standard she also designed. This one bore a 
figure of the Blessed Virgin, to whom an angel 
offered a lily. To these Jeanne added a banner 
upon which was portrayed an image of Christ on 
the Cross. 



30 JOAN OF ARC 

Though no worse than that of the fighting 
men of any prince of the time, the discipline of 
the French king's army was not creditable to a 
Christian country. Blasphemy, murder, rob- 
bery, incendiarism, even rape, were common 
crimes. At Blois, by Jeanne's orders, every 
morning and evening the banner bearing the 
image of the crucified Christ was set up in a 
public place; and beneath the banner Jeanne and 
her chaplain, with the priests of the city, sang 
hymns to the Mother of God. And as the 
soldiers gathered around the banner to join in 
the devotions, the Maid questioned each one: 
"Have you confessed?" If the answer were 
negative, the Maid ordered the man to withdraw, 
or forthwith to confess to one of the priests at 
hand. And with the sword of St. Catharine she 
performed a glorious deed, for she drove out of 
the camp a woman who was neither the mother, 
nor wife, nor child, nor sister, nor relative of 
any man there. As the Maid pursued hotly the 
blade broke in her hands, but no sword in so 
short a time did braver work than the sword of 
St. Catharine. Within a few days Jeanne had 
a new army, an army of decent men, all devoted 
to her, just because, by her example and teach- 
ing, she had helped them to be Christian. 

At length, all things being ready, on April 2^, 
in the morning, the army set out from Blois to 
rescue Orleans. Preceding Jeanne, who, seated 




JOAN OF ARC RECEIVING HER DIVINE MISSION 



FROM CHINON TO RHEIMS 31 

on a white steed, held aloft proudly the banner 
of the God of Majesty, walked the priests chant- 
ing the hymn: "Come, Holy Ghost." A day's 
march, a night under the sky, an early reveille, 
and marching again till past mid-day, they saw 
Orleans in the distance. The Bastard of 
Orleans, with a detachment of troops, met 
Jeanne's force. "I bring you," said she to him, 
"the best succor ever sent to knight or to city, 
for it is the succor of the King of Heaven." 
The night was passed inactively, because the 
leaders deemed daylight more favorable to their 
enterprise. Coming by the left bank of the 
Loire, the provisions could only reach Orleans 
by means of boats. The citizens of Orleans 
made a feint of attacking one of the English 
forts. The effort was wasted. Jeanne's men 
worked undisturbed, and before night-fall of the 
same day, the twenty-ninth, Orleans was re- 
victualled and reinforced. By the light of 
torches, the banner of the God of Majesty in 
front, Jeanne entered Orleans amid the glad 
welcomes of the inhabitants. Her armor, the 
trappings of her horse, they touched reverently, 
as if she were a messenger of the Lord. And 
she, gentle and grateful, led the way to the 
Cathedral, there to thank God for His favor. 

Jeanne marched to Orleans, I said, along the 
left bank of the Loire, but the road was net of 
her choosing. The king's officers who accom- 



32 JOAN OF ARC 

panied her feared to risk the road leading along 
the right bank, because there the EngHsh were 
in force. "In the name of God," exclaimed 
Jeanne, "the counsel of my Lord is surer and 
wiser than yours." Where the English were, 
the Maid would be. Was not she commissioned 
by her Lord to drive them out? Why then 
shoiild she fear? The sooner done, the better. 
To save words, she yielded to the timid, but 
having entered Orleans, she was unwilling to let 
one day pass without assailing the enemy. 

Again the timid opposed. All but two hun- 
dred of her army insisted on returning to Blois. 
Soon they would come back, so they promised. 
Not a day beyond the first of May would she 
wait. The people were ready to follow her 
anywhere at any hour. Along the whole of 
the right bank of the river she tested the 
strength of the English on two successive days. 
Early in the morning, on the fourth of the 
month, her Christian soldiers returned from 
Blois. Before mid-day they engaged the enemy 
and captured one of the strongest of the English 
forts. On the sixth, at the head of four thou- 
sand men, she sallied forth again. Before sun- 
down two other forts had fallen. At night, the 
English burned a third which they dare not de- 
fend. After Mass, on the morning of the 
seventh, at the head of a company of soldiers 
and citizens, Jeanne rode up to one of the city 



FROM CHINON TO RHEIMS 33 

gates, meaning to lead an attack on another 
English fort. The gate was closed and a high 
official informed her that the Council of War 
forbade her exit without their permission. "You 
are a bad man," cried the Maid, "whether that 
please you or not, the soldiers shall go out of 
the city, and they will conquer as they have con- 
quered." The great man was flung aside, the 
gates were forced, and Jeanne and her troops 
assailed the English once more. 

Then the Council of War gained courage. 
Soldiers hurried from the city, the guns opened 
fire. All day besiegers and besieged fought 
desperately. Night fell, and still they fought. 
At last the strongest of the enemy's forts sur- 
rendered. Early on the morning of Sunday, the 
eighth of May, forsaking their wounded, their 
provisions, their artillery, the English de- 
serted all their posts, retreating. Orleans was 
saved. The city that had been besieged for 
seven months, and that had offered to surrender, 
so hopeless was its case, had been victualled, 
reinforced, and freed from all danger within 
nine days. The succor brought by Jeanne the 
Maid, the succor of the King of Heaven, was 
indeed the best succor ever sent to knight or to 
city. 

"Are the English facing us as they flee, or do 
you see only their backs?" asked Jeanne, "They 
show their backs," was the answer. Then said 



34 JOAN OF ARC 

Jeanne: "Let them go; my Lord does not wish 
us to fight them today. We shall have them at 
another time." Thereupon, in a field they set up 
an altar, by her order, and the whole army wor- 
shipped at two Masses of thanksgiving. 

As they hurried to Jargeau, the English 
leaders must have recalled the words of Jeanne's 
summons, issued from Blois before she opened 
the campaign. Against the foreigner, or the 
Burgundian, she bore no hate. The latter she 
hoped to unite to Charles; the former she would 
fight, only if they refused to acknowledge the 
rights of the lawful sovereign. "Give up," thus 
she wrote to the English, "the keys of all the 
good cities taken in France to the Maid sent by 

God, the King of Heaven I am sent 

here by God, the King of Heaven, to cast you 

out of the whole of France And if you 

will not believe the news that God sends you by 
the Maid, wherever we shall find you we shall hit 
you hard, and if you do not make satisfaction, we 
will create a tumult the like of which has not 
been in France for a thousand years. And be- 
lieve firmly that the God of heaven will send the 
Maid a greater force than you can assemble 
against her and her gallant men, and when it 
comes to blows we shall see who has the best 

right, God or you Answer whether you 

desire to make peace in the city of Orleans, and, 
should you not do so, remember that soon you 



FROM CHINON TO RHEIMS 35 

shall suffer great losses." They laughed at her, 
reviled her; but the seventeen-year-old girl had 
hit hard; great losses they had suffered, unex- 
pectedly. Would she drive them out of the 
whole of France? 

"Child of God, go on, go on, go on ! I will aid 
you, go on." Thus a voice spoke to Jeanne. On 
the second day after the flight of the English 
from Orleans, standard in hand, she set out for 
Tours. The king must be crowned forthwith 
at Rheims, as her Lord desired. Charles went 
forth to meet her, and meeting, embraced her 
before all the people. Ten days were passed at 
Tours, then the king accompanied her to Loches. 
The royal Council hesitated to advise Charles 
to venture on a journey to Rheims. "Let me go 
against the English," said the Maid, when she 
found she could move neither king nor Council. 
They had discharged her good soldiers, and six 
weeks passed before another force was gathered. 

On June 6, she rode forth from the town of 
Selles, this time mounted on a black horse, 
armored all but her head, and holding in her 
hand a small axe. She reached Orleans on the 
ninth. Two days later she hurried to Jargeau, 
where the English, strongly fortified, blocked the 
way. At once, the Maid attacked. The fight 
was bloody, the English lost heavily. Those who 
could, escaped. Jargeau was in the king's hands. 
On the thirteenth Jeanne re-entered Orleans ; on 



36 JOAN OF ARC 

the fifteenth she was once again in the saddle. 
At the bridge of Meung, on the Loire, she came 
up with the English, attached and defeated them. 
The following morning she was in front of 
Beaugency. Not awaiting an attack, the Eng- 
lish abandoned the city and fell back on the 
castle. 

Early on the seventeenth she learned that a 
force of five thousand men, sent by Bedford to 
crush her, was near at hand. That night the 
garrison of the castle of Beaugency capitulated. 
At daylight Jeanne went in search of the army 
of five thousand. The English had determined 
to fight near the town of Meung. News came 
to them of the fate of Beaugency. The leaders 
took fright and ordered a retreat. On the plains 
close to Patay, the Maid came up with them. 
"Have you spurs on?" asked she of the Duke of 
Alengon. "Why," said he, "must we flee?" "No," 
answered she, "in the name of God, the English 
will show their backs and you will need your 
spurs to follow them." And so it proved; two 
thousand of them were killed, two hundred 
made prisoners the others ran like frightened 
hares. Dismayed, the English evacuated for- 
tress after fortress. The Maid had kept her 
word, and, wherever she met them, had hit them 
hard. The God of heaven had sent a greater 
force than they could assemble against her or 
her gallant men. Verily, God has the best right. 



FROM CHINON TO RHEIMS 37 

Nine days — and Orleans was saved; eight 
days more — and the EngHsh power was weak- 
ened, the EngHsh spirit broken; better still, the. 
courage, the patriotism of the French were re- 
newed. Could it be that for these extraordinary 
achievements Jeanne deserved little credit ! Had 
she been merely a pretty figure in armor, a 
romantic "daughter of the regiment," who was 
permitted to play soldier in order to kindle a 
false enthusiasm among ignorant and supersti- 
tious men? Positively, No! At Orleans, and 
in the valley of the Loire, there were capable 
men and bold, the best blood of France;. men of 
education, training, ambition. The Maid had 
learned to spin, sew, dig, and pray, but no more. 
When the king presented her with a suit of 
armor, she put it on gladly, little knowing how 
her tender flesh would suffer from the weight 
and pressure of the metal. And yet, to the 
astonishment of the graybeards — as they frankly 
testified — this green girl disposed an army with 
a science beyond theirs, though some of them 
had fought and led a good thirty years. Her 
tactics no contemporary had equalled. When 
she entered the field, artillery was a novelty ; still, 
this did not hinder the spinner of Domremy from 
handling a battery more skilfully than the best 
trained gunner. In what military school was 
she so quickly and thoroughly educated? In the 
school of her saints, the Maid said. 



38 JOAN OF ARC 

At Orleans, when veterans fled she stood firm, 
holding aloft her standard. More than once, 
when panic meant ruin, she rallied panicky 
troops. Fearless, she carried the banner of the 
God of Majesty up to the enemy's wall. On the 
memorable day that, against the will of the royal 
Council, she forced her way through the city 
gate, just as she had planted a scaling-ladder 
against the rampart of an English fort, an arrow 
pierced her above the breast. She had foretold 
the event on the preceding day, and a long time 
back, at Chinon. Still she had not spared her- 
self. Strong-hearted as she was, the girl could 
not hold back her tears when she saw her blood 
flowing. They drew out the arrow head and 
dressed the wound, whereupon she returned to 
lead her men, as though she felt no pain. 

During the eight days' campaign on the Loire, 
again and again did she display her chivalrous 
spirit. The dukes, marshals, captains, were all 
pusillanimous, ever seeking delay, ever timorous 
of the enemy's strength and doubtful of their 
own. While they palavered, Jeanne, standard 
in hand, would face the men-at-arms and give 
the order: "To the assault! Fear not, be bold; 
God is our leader!" Thus the Maid forced the 
fighting. At Jargeau, as, with her standard, she 
was mounting a ladder, a heavy stone, striking 
her helmet, stunned her. The moment she re- 
covered, up she rose in the ditch, urging the 



FROM CHINON TO RHEIMS 39 

men: "Friends, at them! At them! Courage! 
Our Lord has condemned the EngHsh ; even now 
they are ours !" "In the name of God," said she^ 
on the road to Patay, "we must fight; we should 
have them even if they were hanging half way 
between earth and sky." 

At Domremy, she had been brought up to dig, 
to spin, to sew, to tend sheep. A from B she 
did not know, and yet, in all France, there was 
no braver soldier, no more intelligent, skilful, 
dashing leader of men than Jeanne the Maid. 
If her saints did not instruct her, if God did not 
aid her, pray who did? 

"I am sent by God to raise the siege of 
Orleans and to conduct the king to Rheims, in 
order that there he may be anointed and 
crowned." Her mission was still unfulfilled. 
The will of God, Jeanne was anxious, promptly 
and completely to execute. She had hoped, and 
so had the people, that, after the victory at 
Patay, Charles would come to Orleans, uniting 
with soldiers and subjects in their solemn thanks- 
giving and in their festal rejoicings ; but the king 
remained at Sully, a short thirty miles away, 
seemingly careless of God's will and unmindful 
of God's mercy. The Maid hastened to him, 
urging him to set out for Rheims without delay. 
Charles consulted the royal Council and they de- 
bated as usual. 

Finally on June 22, Jeanne induced him to ad- 



40 JOAN OF ARC 

vance a dozen miles to Chateauneuf. There the 
royal Council, having argued, duly consented to 
the Maid's wishes. She galloped to Orleans, 
gathered her army corps, and, on the twenty- 
fourth, marched to Gien, where she met the 
dauphin. As the king and the Council insisted 
on another leisurely discussion, Jeanne left them 
to talk and advanced by herself. Two days later 
Charles followed her with twelve thousand men. 
By July fifth they had reached Troyes. A num- 
ber of lesser places had acknowledged Charles 
from day to day. But Troyes was garrisoned by 
English and Burgundian soldiers and refused to 
admit a French force into the city. 

After a five days' siege the royal Council ad- 
vised Charles to waste no more time on such 
obstinate people. Was it not better to proceed 
to Rheims, having as little trouble as possible. 
Jeanne protested. "Gentle King of France," 
said she, "this city is yours. Remain here two 
or three days and without any doubt it will be 
in your power, through love or by force." They 
gave way to the girl. Then she mounted her 
horse, called out the men-at-arms, and set them 
to making entrenchments and disposing artillery. 
All night they labored. In the morning, Jeanne, 
bearing the standard of the God of Majesty, was 
about to lead the army in an assault against the 
walls, when, from the gates of the city, a deputa- 
tion advanced offering to capitulate. Amid the 



FROM CHINON TO RHEIMS 41 

plaudits of citizens and soldiers, Charles and 
Jeanne entered Troyes triumphantly. Next 
Chalons surrendered. 

The army halted within a day's journey of 
Rheims. At Rheims the authorities were unde- 
cided. Since they heard of Jeanne's coming, they 
had sought aid from the duke of Burgundy, their 
intention being to stand a siege rather than to ad- 
mit Charles. No help came from Burgundy. The 
news from Chalons and Troyes had a chastening 
effect. On the sixteenth of July, a motley crowd 
of citizens left the city, tramped to Septsaulx, 
where Charles was encamped, and invited him 
to make Rheims his own. Towards evening he 
entered the city. Forthwith it was arranged 
with the Archbishop that Charles should be 
crowned on the morrow. All night there was 
bustling, and hurrying and scurrying. When 
sleepy citizens opened their eyes on Sunday 
morning, they asked: "Can this be Rheims!" 
so changed was the appearance of the houses, 
the streets, the churches. 

At nine o'clock on the morning of the seven- 
teenth, the king, the archbishop of Rheims, the 
bishop of Laon, the bishop of Seez, the bishop of 
Chalons, accompanied by an escort of nobles, 
rode through the central door of the cathedral of 
Our Lady, dismounting from their horses, only 
at the entrance to the choir. At the Church of 
St. Remi, the abbot of the abbey attached thereto 



42 JOAN OF ARC 

had committed to the archbishop la sainte 
ampoule; a vial containing holy oil reserved for 
the anointing of the kings of France — so the 
tradition ran — ever since the coronation of 
Clovis. As Charles took the customary oaths; 
as his forehead was signed with the holy oil; as 
the kingly crown was placed upon his head, 
Jeanne the Maid stood beside him, upholding the 
victorious banner of the God of Majesty. From 
the walls of the cathedral of Our Lady the blare 
of the trumpets echoed exultingly, high above 
the shouts of the gladdened people ; yet none, not 
even the new king, felt a joy more intense than 
that which filled the heart of Jeanne d'Arc. 

In the glad chorus, her voice was not heard. 
Emotion overpowered her. But, after Charles 
had been crowned, weeping she fell on her knees 
and kissed his feet, thus addressing him as she 
knelt; "Gentle king, now has been accomplished 
the will of God, who desired that you should 
come to Rheims and be worthily anointed, thus 
showing that you are the true king, him to 
whom the kingdom should pertain." 

Omit the supernatural wholly from the story 
of Jeanne d'Arc, and still it reads like a romance. 
She freed despairing Orleans in nine days; out 
of the valley of the Loire, she drove the English 
within eight days; from the day she forced the 
dilatory Charles and his garrulous Council out 
of Gien, until, the coronation at Rheims, barely 




JOAN, IN ARMOR 



FROM CHINON TO RHEIMS 43 

three weeks had passed, and in that short time 
not only had she given France an anointed king, 
but she had also recovered an extensive territory, 
shaken the whole fabric of the English power — 
the labor of fourteen eventful years — and 
aroused the national spirit in every part of 
France. 

But one cannot omit the supernatural from 
the story of Jeanne the Maid. The men-at-arms 
fought; it was God gave the victory. Not as a 
mere patriot did Jeanne lay down the distaff and 
take up the sword of St. Catharine; not because 
of military ambition did she put off woman's 
attire and put on armor. Of herself, independent 
of God, her Lord, she pretended to do nothing. 
"To save the dauphin I was born," said she to 
de Beaudricourt. "God will aid him through me. 
I will lead him to Rheims, and there he shall be 
crowned. No one in the world, except me, can 
recover the kingdom of France; from me alone 
shall it have aid, and I must do that, for so my 
Lord wishes." . . . 'T bring you," said she to 
the Bastard of Orleans, "the succor of the King 
of Heaven." ... "I am sent by God, the King 
of Heaven," was her message to the English at 
Orleans . . . "Now is the will of God accom- 
plished. He who desired that you should come to 
Rheims to be anointed," are the words we last 
heard from the Maid's lips as she knelt, weeping, 
at the feet of the king she had crowned. A 



44 JOAN OF ARC 

child of God, and an instrument of God assur- 
edly, was Jeanne d'Arc. 

The very same! I grieve to say it. Great- 
hearted Jeanne, chaste Jeanne, believing Jeanne, 
gallant Jeanne it was that we saw burning at 
the stake in the Rouen market-place. Her valiant 
heart it was that we saw cast into the river 
Seine. It was her expiring cry we heard : "Jesu ! 
Jesu !" That beseeching cry I hear this very day 
and hour. Shed no tears for the Maid! The 
children of her Lord, neither men nor women, 
need weep for her. Believe firmly that the God 
of heaven will aid her still. He is the God of 
Majesty, and bears in the palm of His hand the 
globe of the world from generation to generation. 



Ill 



FROM RHEIMS TO ROUEN 

While the holy chrism was yet visible on the 
forehead of the King, the Maid urged him on to 
Paris, arguing that, with the King of France in 
the capital of France, the English as well as the 
Burgundians would be dismayed. Expecting and 
fearing what Jeanne advised, Bedford, the Eng- 
lish leader, had already bargained with his uncle, 
Henry Beaufort, the Cardinal of Winchester, 
for a reinforcement of six thousand men; and 
when, three days after the coronation, Charles 
consented to follow Jeanne's wise plan, the Eng- 
lish Cardinal and Bedford, with ten thousand 
men, were marching toward Rheims. Coming 
up with the French army, the English dared not 
attack. As the King advanced, they retired, 
blocking the way now and then, but carefully 
avoiding a battle. Through cities, towns and 
villages, Charles paraded, as a legitimate sov- 
ereign amid dutiful and loyal subjects, and not 
at all as a conqueror. On August i8, he halted 
at Compiegne. Paris was only fifty miles away. 

And here at Compiegne, I cannot help recall- 
ing an affecting incident that happened a week 
earlier, as the army rode through Lagny. The 

45 



46 JOAN OF ARC 

Maid was in the van, the Archbishop of Rheims, 
chancellor of the kingdom, on her right, and 
the brave Bastard of Orleans on her left hand. 
Said the Archbishop: "J^^ri"^» ^^ what place 
do you hope to end your days?" "Wheresoever 
it shall please God," the Maid replied; "for I am 
sure neither about time nor place, knowing no 
more about the matter than you. Would to God, 
my Creator, that, this very day, laying down my 
arms, I could return to my father and mother, 
to tend their sheep, with my sister and my 
brothers, who would rejoice to see me." Her 
father had come to Rheims to give her a last 
farewell and blessing. Thus Jeanne spoke as 
they rode through Lagny. At Compiegne — and 
too soon you shall know why — I am sadly 
reminded of her words. 

No less than Bedford, another enemy of 
France, Philip of Burgundy, feared the King's 
advance. Putting more faith in deceit than in 
arms, Philip again feigned friendship for 
Charles, and thus induced him to sign a truce, 
suspending operations until the Christmas fol- 
lowing. With astounding simplicity, Charles 
included the English within the terms of the 
truce. Before these concessions were made, 
Jeanne, at the head of the fighting men, had 
marched away from Compiegne. At St. Denis, 
within five miles of Paris, she learned of the 
King's action, and at once protested. 



FROM RHEIMS TO ROUEN 47 

The Maid, advising Charles to repudiate the 
truce, was in the right; for Philip of Burgundy, 
before negotiating with the French, had agreed 
with the English to hold and defend the capital, 
in their interest. A mettlesome king would have 
promptly punished such a trickster; but Charles, 
influenced by his timorous council, dawdled away 
valuable time at Compiegne. Many an entreat- 
ing message did Jeanne send, before he ventured 
to move as far as Senlis. There, twenty-five 
miles from Paris, he rested as if every day were 
a Sunday. At last, on September 7, he joined 
the Maid. Before eight o'clock the next morn- 
ing the French army was marching against the 
capital. 

The attack was bold: an attack of patriots on 
the foreigner, and the traitor, who, by force and 
fraud, had seized the capital of the French 
nation. Protected by walls and artillery, and 
stimulated by leaders whose ambitions were at 
stake, the Burgundians fought hard. Toward 
evening, Jeanne's troop, amid arrows and shot, 
had pressed nigh to one of the city's gates. 
"Assault the wall!" cried the Maid, intrepid as 
ever. Then she started in front of the men. A 
double moat encircled the wall. Into the first 
moat, the Maid jumped. It was dry. Crossing 
it, she clambered up on top of the ridge that 
divided the outer moat from the one close by the 



48 JOAN OF ARC 

ramparts. Only then did she discover that the 
inner moat was filled with water. They saw her 
plunge her lance into the water, to test its depth; 
her order they awaited. Suddenly, with a sharp 
cry, she fell flat on the ridge. An arrow had 
pierced her thigh. Retaining her presence of 
mind, she requested the men-at-arms to carry 
her' under cover; and then, regardless of her 
wound, urged them to bridge the inner moat, 
and to assault the wall. The cowardly captains 
feared to do as the girl bade, because, forsooth, 
only the stars were lighting the sky. Prostrate 
as she was, Jeanne, who knew neither day nor 
night when the cause of her native land was at 
stake, insisted, promising victory. Neither in- 
citement, nor promise, nor entreaty availed. 
Officers and men fell back, bearing of¥ the 
wounded, helpless, chagrined Maid. 

The arrow in her thigh did not keep Jeanne 
abed on the morning of the ninth. Betimes, she 
arose, and speedily ordered an assault; but the 
nerveless king countermanded the order, and, 
shabbily, retired to St. Denis, where, as if he 
were fated to prove his paternity, he renewed, 
insanely, the truce with the perfidious Duke of 
Burgundy. Not satisfied with sacrificing the 
Maid, who had crowned him, he now sacrificed 
his people, * including Paris within the terms of 
the new truce; thus assuring the capital of 
France to the enemies of France. 



FROM RHEIMS TO ROUEN 49 

On the thirteenth of September, the sovereign 
who, proudly, triumphantly, had entered St. 
Denis, retreated like a vanquished pretender. 
The Maid went unwillingly, protesting that if 
the army held on, the capture of Paris was 
certain. Before they led her away, she entered 
the venerable Abbey Church of St. Denis, to 
whose foundation Dagobert, Pepin, Charles the 
Great, and St. Louis, had contributed. Before 
the altar, devoutly, she presented to the glorious 
patron, the arms and armor she wore during 
the days of conquest. Was the child of God 
disheartened? Did she believe that the term of 
her heavenly mission had closed? No; she 
merely followed a pious custom, according to 
which wounded soldiers dedicated their arms 
and armor to a Saint. Choosing to honor St. 
Denis, the Maid was moved by patriotism as 
well as by piety ; for the war-cry of France was : 
"St. Denis!" 

A fortnight after his retreat, Charles dis- 
banded the grand army created by Jeanne 
d'Arc: the reformed army, which, under her 
guidance, had won a crown for him, and which, 
had he the courage and foresight of a woman, 
would have made him the master of the capital 
of France, and the sovereign of a united King- 
dom. Having thus relieved himself of trouble- 
some cares, Charles spent the time in journeying 
from one agreeable castle to another, carrying 



50 JOAN OF ARC 

the Maid wherever he went, and treating her 
with rare honor and favor. An idler's life was 
displeasing to Jeanne ; she longed for action ; and 
therefore, when, at the end of October, 1429, the 
royal Council decided to send a force against 
those towns, on the upper Loire, that had not 
yet acknowledged the King, the Maid gladly 
accepted the command. At St. Pierre-le-Mou- 
tier, early in November, heroically, she stood her 
ground, at the foot of the wall, when her men 
had deserted her; shamed them into fighting, 
and captured the town. The royal Council 
ordered her to La Charite. She lacked artillery, 
food and cash, nor could she obtain these from 
the Council. Only by begging aid from the 
loyal cities could she equip her little army. The 
siege opened on November 24. So skilful and 
brave was the defense, that, after a month of 
repulses, the Maid was compelled to retire, leav- 
ing her artillery behind. At La Charite, for the 
first time Jeanne d'Arc suffered defeat. 

After this reverse, the King not only received 
her kindly, but also showered favors upon her. 
Ennobling herself and all her family, by a special 
provision he ennobled the female descendants of 
the family as well as the male. Honors could 
not reconcile the Maid to the easy-going policy 
of Charles. The perils she foresaw, and from 
which — with her Lord's aid, and for His sake, — 
she would have saved her native land, were vital. 



FROM RHEIMS TO ROUEN 51 

Not only had the English and the Burgundians 
reoccupied St. Denis, but, dishonoring its patron 
saint as well as their own manhood, they had 
robbed the Abbey Church of Jeanne's armor. 
This contemptible act should have made Charles 
wary, if not indignant; and yet, feebly, he con- 
sented to an extension of the terms of the truce 
signed after his retreat from Paris, and bound 
himself to keep the peace until Easter, 1430. 
Philip of Burgundy was doubly, trebly, a de- 
ceiver; for, while negotiating with Charles, he 
accepted from the Duke of Bedford, the office 
of Lieutenant-General of the English sovereign, 
Henry VI. The English withdrew all their 
troops, and the Duke of Burgundy became the 
head and front of the enemies of France. In 
March, 1430, his ambition was fully disclosed. 
To add one perjury to another cost him nothing. 
Violating the word he had so often plighted, 
the faithless Philip led an army against the loyal 
cities; the English paying him a subsidy, and 
promising him a large increase of territory. 

Was all that France had won, thanks to our 
Lord, to be lost through the pusillanimity of the 
King and his Council! Jeanne could not bear 
the thought. Charles was loitering at Sully. 
Without a word to him or to his attendants, the 
Maid slipped away, gathered a small escort, and 
took the road to Paris. Gloomier days were to 
come, but gloomy enough was that fifteenth of 



52 JOAN OF ARC 

April on which she passed through the gate of 
Melun; for, before the day closed, her Saints 
informed her that, by the next St. John's day, 
she would be in the hands of the enemy. Again 
and again, this warning was renewed. 

God's will be done! exclaimed Jeanne, pa- 
tiently; and yet she was troubled. A prison 
awaited her; perhaps death, perhaps dishonor. 
She besought her heavenly patrons, that, if death 
was in store for her, at least her imprisonment 
might be short. The answer to this prayer was 
a counsel: Resignation to God's will, whatever 
came. At once the Maid resolved to show her 
resignation to the Lord's pleasure, and her 
unselfish love of her native land. No longer 
would she lead. As a volunteer, she followed 
the captains. 

Combining with the scattered bands brought 
into the field by some of the King's officers, the 
loyal men-at-arms who had been subject to the 
Maid fought inside or outside the walls, defend- 
ing or attacking, as one loyal town, or another, 
was threatened. Victory alternated with defeat; 
but finally the army of Philip forced the royalists 
to divide, one band seeking safety here, another 
there. 

While at Crespy, on May 3, Jeanne heard that 
Compiegne was in peril once more. Faithful 
Compiegne! In her heart she cherished, loved 
its good people. Hastily she collected a force of 



FROM RHEIMS TO ROUEN 53' 

three hundred men and galloped to the rescue. 
Passing through the enemies' lines, she made her 
way into the city on the morning of April 24. 
Late in the afternoon of the same day, with the 
King's captain, she attacked the enemy, and 
drove back the Burgundians. English troops 
came to their assistance; the French took fright 
and ran. Bravely as ever, the Maid stood, rally- 
ing the men. They failed her. She was recog- 
nized, surrounded; eager hands contended for 
the honor of dragging a girl down from her 
horse, and of leading her away — a prisoner. 
Will her imprisonment be short? Will death 
come soon? as she prayed. Nine months ago, 
on the road leading from Lagny to Compiegne, 
as you remember, the Archbishop of Rheims 
questioned, saying: "J^3.nne, in what place do 
you hope to end your days?" Her answer was: 
"Wheresoever it shall please God, for I am sure 
neither about time nor place, knowing no more 
of the matter than you." About time or place, 
on this night of April 24, she knows no more 
than she knew when they cantered by Lagny; 
but we know that Compiegne is on the road that 
leads to the scaffold and the Seine. The great- 
hearted child of God has need of resignation. 
All the King's true friends grieved over the 
capture of the Maid, and whole cities mourned 
ceremoniously. Well might sovereign and people 
grieve and mourn, having lost her who brought 



54 JOAN OF ARC 

them succor greater than that of any knight, 
duke, or prince. All the King's enemies rejoiced 
at the Maid's discomfiture, and the English ran 
mad with delight. To have been worsted by a 
peasant girl; to have been deprived of all their 
hard-won gains by a peasant girl; to see the 
bravest and noblest of their proud leaders go 
down before the lance or the sword of a peasant 
girl, — had filled the English with fear and with 
shame; and fear, coupled with shame, bred hate. 
Their bitter hatred of Jeanne d'Arc, before her 
capture, they could show only by words; and 
words they had not spared in defaming her; as 
if to be thrashed by a vile woman were more 
honorable than to be routed by a Christian 
virgin: now they could revenge themselves by 
cowardly deeds. Within forty-eight hours after 
they had valorously dragged her down from her 
horse, they, plotted her death. It was a dastardly 
plot, a sacrilegious plot. 

By the law of nations, Jeanne, as a prisoner 
of war, was entitled to honorable treatment and 
to ransom. Had her captors put a price upon 
her, the French people, if not the French King, 
would have paid it, at any cost. To deprive her 
of her rights, as a combatant, there was only one 
way; and that way was: by charging her with 
a crime against religion, thus bringing her 
immediately under the jurisdiction of ecclesi- 
astical law. Pierre Cauchon was the man for 



FROM RHEIMS TO ROUEN 55 

the work — a clever cleric, who, ten years earlier, 
had assisted in negotiating the disgraceful treaty 
of Troyes, by whose terms Henry V. of England 
had been recognized as regent of France and 
legitimate heir of Charles VI. As a crafty 
agent of Philip of Burgundy, Cauchon had 
not been ill-paid for his services, holding, as 
he did, the bishopric of Beauvais and also an 
office of honor and authority in the powerful 
University of Paris. Through his influence, on 
April 26, the second day after the Maid's cap- 
ture, Philip of Burgundy was summoned by the 
vice-inquisitor of Paris to deliver up to him: "a 
certain woman named Jeanne, suspected of 
heresy," so that she might be duly tried before 
good and learned doctors of the University. 
The Burgundians knew that their prisoner was 
valuable; so, giving no answer to the summons, 
they shrewdly held "the woman named Jeanne" 
in the castle of Beaulieu, until the end of June, 
when, because she attempted to escape, they 
transferred her to the fortress of Beaurevoir. 

Meantime Pierre Cauchon had not been idle. 
With his connivance, the University of Paris 
issued a summons, on July 14, citing the 
"woman suspected of heresy." To this sum- 
mons the peculiar provision was added, that, in 
case the woman were not sent to Paris, she 
should be handed over to the Bishop of Beau- 
vais, in whose diocese she had been captured. 



56 JOAN OF ARC 

The Bishop of Beauvais we recognize as Pierre 
Cauchon, the tool of the EngHsh as well as of 
the Burgundians. 

On the Duke of Burgundy, and on his lieuten- 
ant, John of Luxemburg, Cauchon served this 
new summons, and with it a third, issued in his 
own name, requiring that the suspected woman 
should be committed to the church, because she 
was charged with idolatry, and also with in- 
voking demons, the use of magical charms, and 
the commission of many other most wicked 
actions. In the text of this latter summons, 
Cauchon artfully offered Jeanne's jailors a bribe. 
By law, he said, the English King, Henry VL, 
as King of France, enjoyed the right to acquire 
from a captor, on the payment of six thousand 
francs, possession of a prisoner, be it a great 
lord, or a prince, or even a king; and, though 
Jeanne was neither king nor prince, nor great 
lord, Henry of England was ready to pay those 
who held her the sum of six thousand francs, 
upon her delivery into the hands of his repre- 
sentative, — Pierre Cauchon. 

Philip had been waiting for a bid. Cauchon's 
price was too low for the Duke, who asked ten 
thousand francs. Perhaps Jeanne had an inkling 
of this plot ; in any case she knew how thoroughly 
the English hated her, and what harsh treatment 
she might expect from them. Escape was hardly 
possible; still when she heard that her beloved 



FROM RHEIMS TO ROUEN 57 

Compiegne was sore pressed, she determined to 
seek freedom at the risk of her Hfe. From the 
top of the tower of the castle of Beaurevoir, she 
leaped to the ground, missed a footing, was dis- 
abled, seized, and, once more interned. Soon 
after, the English accepted Philip's terms, and he 
sent the Maid to Crotoy, where she was de- 
livered to the deputies of Henry VI. From 
Crotoy, toward the end of December, 1430, she 
was removed to Rouen and imprisoned in a 
tower of the royal castle. Manfully, gallantly, 
the English chained, hand and foot, the young 
peasant girl, for whom they had paid a price 
almost double that of a King. 

By letters patent issued in the name of the 
English sovereign, and dated January 3, 143 1, 
Jeanne d' Arc was handed over to the jurisdic- 
tion of the Bishop of Beauvais; and this was 
done notwithstanding the fact that, after her 
arrival at Rouen, the University of Paris had 
made a demand on both Bedford and Cauchon, 
that she should be brought to Paris and be tried 
there, becomingly, by men learned in ecclesiasti- 
cal law and in theology. The English desired a 
condemnation, rather than a trial by a competent 
tribunal, and this desire was apparent not only 
from their disregard of the University's request, 
but also from their selection of Cauchon, who, as 
Bishop of Beauvais, had no jurisdiction in the 
See of Rouen; and still more, from the provision 



58 JOAN OF ARC 

inserted in the letters patent, requiring that in 
case of the ecclesiastical courts finding her not 
guilty, Jeanne should be recommitted to the 
King's officers; a provision which it was hardly 
worth wasting a scribe's time in writing, for the 
King's officers took good care that their prisoner 
never passed out of the hands of the King's 
jailors. 

Cauchon's lack of jurisdiction was a serious 
matter. In the effort to make good his defect, 
he obtained from the archiepiscopal Chapter of 
Rouen, a document conceding him jurisdiction 
within the territory of the archdiocese, for this 
particular case. In fact this concession was null 
and void, because the Chapter did not act freely, 
being swayed by the threats and the promises of 
the English government. The mere thought that 
Jeanne d'Arc, a virgin, dutiful, devout, heroic, is 
to be tried as a heretic, awakens our pity, our 
sympathy; but knowing, as we do, that she is to 
be tried by one who has usurped the office of a 
judge, and by a court such as a false judge must 
select; and that the forms of a sacred law are to 
be dishonored in order to compass her death; 
and, still worse, to calumniate her, our souls are 
fired with a just detestation of the horrible crim- 
inals, as well as of their infamous crime. 

From among his intimates and those whom he 
thought he could rely upon, Cauchon chose a 
body of consultors, numbering not less than 




EQUESTRIENNE STATUE OF JOAN OF ARC 
Fremiet 



FROM RHEIMS TO ROUEN 59 

seventy. The prosecution of the case against 
the Maid he confided to a former official of the 
diocese of Beauvais, a certain Jean d'Estivet, 
who showed himself worthy of the trust reposed 
in him by his unprincipled superior. Though, 
nominally, officials of an ecclesiastical court, 
judge and jury were actually employees of the 
English King, receiving, as they did, a liberal 
stipend through the Duke of Bedford. 

There was no evidence against Jeanne. No 
witnesses had appeared, accusing her of any 
ecclesiastical crime. To try her, it was necessary 
to make charges against her. A commission was 
despatched to Domremy to enquire into her early 
life, and, if possible, to lay the foundation for an 
indictment. The report of this commission was 
not helpful to those who had plotted her ruin. 
More than six weeks passed before Cauchon felt 
it safe officially to declare that there was ground 
for proceeding against the Maid. Immediately 
after this declaration, she was cited to appear 
before the Bishop of Beauvais, on February 21, 
at eight o'clock in the morning. 

The trial thus opened on February 21, 1431, 
closed only on May 30, though, within this 
period, according to the forms of law, Jeanne 
was the subject of several processes. Between 
February 21 and March 3, she was examined, 
outside of the jail, on six different occasions. 
On March 10, a secret examination was initiated, 



60 JOAN OF ARC 

in the jail itself. This examination, adjourned 
from day to day, ended on March 17; and with- 
in these eight days, the unfortunate prisoner 
was interrogated during no less than nine long 
and wearisome sessions. At the secret examina- 
tion, the prosecutors, for such they were, num- 
bered only five; and they were discreetly chosen 
for the work, by Cauchon, because of their sub- 
serviency. 

These fifteen inquisitions, public and secret, 
were intended to prepare the way for the ordi- 
nary trial of the Maid. She had been questioned 
and cross-questioned, artfully, on many matters 
having no relation with the faith of a Catholic, 
and on some matters that even learned folk 
might innocently answer in a most heretical 
fashion. Had her answers been truthfully re- 
corded, it is questionable whether, unlettered as 
she was, a single flaw could be found in them. 
But her answers were not set down truthfully. 
Under the direction of Cauchon, and of his 
servile agents, the written page was made to lie 
about her. A heretic, or a witch, she must be 
proved. Who else could have thrashed the 
English, and the Burgundians, so often and so 
sorely! From a lying record, between March 18 
and 26, no less than seventy articles were formu- 
lated, and, on the 27th, Jeanne, having been 
taken from the jail and led into a hall of the 
castle of Rouen, was submitted to another ex- 



FROM RHEIMS TO ROUEN 61 

amination on each of these articles. Thirty-nine 
canonists and theologians faced the lone Maid on 
this day; on the 28th, thirty-five confronted her.. 
Ye maidens who are not yet heroes! But I need 
not appeal to you, — on your tender, heartfelt 
prayers, Jeanne d'Arc can count. 

Three days later, Cauchon, with eight others, 
put her to a further test, in the jail. After this 
she was left to herself until April 18, and mean- 
time skilful doctors in theology revised the 
seventy articles of accusation, and compressed 
them to twelve. These were submitted to each 
of the consultors and to the University of Paris, 
with a letter from Cauchon inviting one and all 
to say that the "assertions" contained in the 
articles were opposed to the faith, scandalous, 
rash, contrary to good morals, and, in a word 
culpable. The University, and the majority of 
the consultors, basing their opinion on the state- 
ment presented to them, answered as Cauchon 
desired. He could not formally condemn the 
Maid, but the road was clear. 



IV 



FROM DUNGEON TO SCAFFOLD. 

We left the Maid in her dungeon. 

The long confinement, the strain upon her 
mind, the cruelty of her jailers, told upon 
Jeanne's hardy frame. The wonder is that she 
bore her afflictions so long. Five coarse English 
soldiers guarded her, three being constantly in 
the cell with her, and two outside. At night she 
was chained abed, nor could she rise until the 
guards unlocked the irons. She was denied the 
sacraments, though in the public sessions and 
in the jail, she begged to be allowed to confess 
and communicate. Her false judge would not 
even permit her to enter the castle chapel to 
pray, and a humane process-server, who admitted 
her to the chapel, on the way to the trial cham- 
ber, was threatened with imprisonment in a dark 
dungeon. To add to their persecutions, they set 
a spy upon her, one Nicholas Loiseleur, a canon 
of Rouen, who, disguised, now as a shoemaker, 
now as a captive French soldier, now as a priest 
from Lorraine — her own land — invited her con- 
fidence, that he might abuse it, and even tried 
to make her convict herself, encouraging her to 

62 



FROM DUNGEON TO SCAFFOLD 63 

refuse to submit to the Church, and suggesting 
to her answers that would have justified a ver- 
dict of guilty. No less infamously, Cauchon, 
with some of Bedford's intimates, listened to 
these conversations, at a convenient hole in the 
wall. 

When Jeanne fell ill of fever, the English 
were alarmed. They feared to lose a victim. 
The physicians of the King, Henry, were ordered 
to watch her carefully, as Bedford wished her 
to die "on the scaffold, after the sentence of her 
judges, and not otherwise." She was still feeble 
when, on April i8, Cauchon entered the prison, 
informed her of the poor opinion of her enter- 
tained by the learned doctors he had consulted, 
and exhorted her to recant her errors, and thus 
become again a child of the Church. As the Maid 
declined to be put out of the Church, without good 
reason, and the decree of a lawful authority, 
she was once more summoned and produced be- 
fore Cauchon's court, in the great hall of the 
castle, on May 2. Sixty-three consultors sat in 
state; the twelve articles were read to her and 
speeches were addressed to her. She listened; 
she was attentive when one consultor after an- 
other pleaded with her to consider the dangers 
that threatened her body and her soul; but 
Jeanne made no sign of consenting to plead 
guilty of any crime. Failing to affect his pur- 
pose by the use of words alone, her iniquitous 



64 JOAN OF ARC 

judge determined to try force. On May 9, she 
was taken into the chamber of torture, and there 
Cauchon, in the presence of nine of his con- 
suitors, threatened to compel her "to acknowl- 
edge and confess the truth," unless she solemnly 
avowed the error of her ways. The Maid had 
never feared the rush of flying arrows on the 
battle-field, the cannon's deadly bolt, nor sword, 
nor axe, nor javelin, wielded by the fiercest, 
strongest man. Before the instruments of tor- 
ture, she stood unawed. Cauchon hesitated, and 
sent her back to prison. Three days later, four- 
teen of the consultors debated whether or not the 
girl should be racked. By a vote of eleven 
against three, she was spared. It is more than 
probable that she escaped from the inhuman 
punishment of torture, only because of her 
physical weakness. Her persecutors feared lest 
she should die under the infliction, and thus de- 
prive them of the gratification of seeing the 
woman, who had vanquished the English, con- 
sumed by fire. 

Fifty-one consultors gathered in the archi- 
episcopal chapel of Rouen on May 19. The 
answer of the University of Paris to Cauchon's 
report of the trial was read and considered. It 
was condemnatory; declaring her a heretic, or, 
at least, justly suspected of heresy, and her 
visions, lying and pernicious. Unless she ab- 
jured, she should be handed over to the secular 



FROM DUNGEON TO SCAFFOLD 65 

power, and be duly punished. The opinion of 
the great University was seconded by the fifty- 
one consultors, with a remarkable unanimity. 
Several demanded that the Maid be sentenced, 
then and there, but more moderate counsels pre- 
vailed, and the sentence was deferred until the 
heretic, or suspect, had a last chance to confess 
her guilt and to assume the infamy that, by 
right, pertained to her unjust judges. 

Into the castle hall, Jeanne entered, for the 
last time, on the twenty-third of May. Cauchon, 
with ten clerical assistants, awaited her. A 
doctor in theology had been appointed to sermon- 
ize her, and he performed the duty with a proper 
respect for the rules of rhetorical art, his chief 
defect being, merely a lack of regard for truth 
and good sense. The Twelve Articles, and the 
opinions of the University of Paris, supplied him 
with a text and with a matter for discourse. 
At the end, he summoned the Maid to deny her 
heavenly mission; to repudiate the revelations 
she had been favored with, thanks to her Lord, 
the King of Heaven ; and to obey the Church. 

Reciting Jeanne's answer to this formal sum- 
mons, I shall the more plainly demonstrate her 
firmness of will, the rectitude of her conscience, 
and the discomfiture of her malicious and usurp- 
ing judges. "As to my acts and words," said 
she, 'T appeal to them, as I have testified to 
them during this trial, and I stand by them. If 



66 JOAN OF ARC 

I were on the road to the grave; nay, if I saw 
the pyre, and the executioner ready to light the 
fire; nay more, if I were amid the flames, I 
would say no word other than what I have said 
during this trial, and by my words I shall stand 
until death." 

What were Jeanne's words during this atro- 
cious trial, and to what acts did she refer? The 
false record is long, but the substance of the 
charges and of her defence can be compressed 
into a small space. I spoke of her defence; and 
yet the Maid had no defender. In the beginning 
she challenged her judges for favor, demanding 
that a number of French ecclesiastics should 
form a part of the court. This most reasonable 
demand being denied, she asked for the assist- 
ance of an advocate, pleading her lack of educa- 
tion. Again she met with a refusal. After the 
fifteen inquisitions, secret and public, of the pre- 
paratory process, Cauchon astutely ofifered to 
select several counsel to advise her, but the Maid 
prudently responded that "she had no intention 
of putting aside the counsel of our Lord." 

Aside from her inspiration, Jeanne d'Arc was 
a notable woman, gifted with a quick perception, 
a good memory, a ready wit, a keen power of 
observation, a wonderful fortitude, and rare self- 
control. These qualities stood her in good stead, 
as, alone, she bore the attack of the crowd of 
shrewd, trained scholars, day after day. Had 



FROM DUNGEON TO SCAFFOLD 67 

she fought no other battles, she would still com- 
mand our admiration, because of her splendid 
campaign in the jail and the castle-hall at Rouen.. 

Though the main purpose of the trial was to 
induce the Maid to accuse herself of some crime, 
Cauchon endeavored to worm out of her a secret 
in which the English were much interested; the 
mysterious revelation made by her to Charles 
VIL, when, in March, 1429, she met him for the 
first time, at Chinon. Examined, re-examined, 
pushed, pressed, she retained the secret. They 
might have known as much from her answer at 
the time the subject was broached: "You will 
never drag that out of me. I promised to keep 
it a secret. I cannot tell it, without committing 
perjury." In the torture chamber, Cauchon en- 
deavored to extort the secret from her, but, even 
there he failed. 

Jeanne was not adjudged a heretic on the 
ground that she could and did keep a secret; but 
an act no more criminal, under the circum- 
stances, subjected her to many painful interroga- 
tories, and was, in the end, an occasion of her 
condemnation. Wearing a man's dress, it was 
argued that she could not be a holy woman, and 
that she must be a wicked woman. Still she 
would not put on a woman's dress. ''Remove 
me from this prison," she said, "and I'll don 
woman's clothes. Just now I am satisfied with 
those I have, since it pleases God that I should 



68 JOAN OF ARC 

wear them." If they would permit her to hear 
Mass, she would change her habit, but only on 
the condition that, returning from Mass, her male 
attire should be at her service. They might cut 
off her head, but a woman's garments she would 
not assume without the permission of our Lord. 
One would imagine that, considering Jeanne's 
assertion that she had made a vow of virginity, 
and the fact of her being deprived of any associ- 
ation with her own sex, and of her being com- 
pelled to live day and night under the eye of 
five rough soldiers, without whose permission 
she could not rise from her bed, Cauchon would 
have commended her for retaining the dress she 
had favored since she took up a man's work, 
but no; he and his intimates, with a persistence 
which was cruel, even if not malicious, tormented 
her day after day with demands that she should 
put on woman's apparel. Finally they offered 
to allow her to perform her religious duties, if 
she would dress like a woman. Her refusal, and 
its terms, are the best evidence to the perils of 
her surroundings. "That is not in my power," 
said she to Cauchon; "if it were, it should be 
quickly done. Even to communicate, I cannot 
do what you ask. I beg you to let me hear Mass, 
in a man's clothing. This dress does not trouble 
my conscience, and, wearing it, I do not think I 
am disobedient to the Church." In the end they 



FROM DUNGEON TO SCAFFOLD 69 

prevailed. What came of it, we shall learn in 
good time. 

Why the English insisted that the young 
French girl, who had whipped their boldest and 
cleverest leaders, should not wear the clothes 
that betoken manhood, even the plea of national 
pride will neither excuse nor explain; but we 
can easily understand why Bedford, or the Duke 
of Burgundy, should have been desirous of forc- 
ing the Maid to disavow the reality of her heav- 
enly visions, and thus to discredit her positive 
claim to a providential mission. Had she ac- 
knowledged herself to be an impostor, the 
enemies of France might well have rejoiced. It 
is not pleasing to know that God is on the other 
side. 

About her relations with celestial beings, 
Jeanne was chary of speech at first. Vaguely 
she described her patrons as "voices." "Have 
your Voices' visible forms ; have they eyes ?" was 
a question put to her on a day in February. 
"You shall not know, as yet," she replied; "Chil- 
dren have a saying that: 'Men are often hung 
for telling the truth.' " She might have added 
that one woman would be burned for the same 
cause. Frequently Cauchon returned to this sub- 
ject; and, at times, she was more explicit, say- 
ing that St. Catharine and St. Margaret wore 
magnificent crowns; that their voices were 
charming, soft and humble, and that these saints 



70 JOAN OF ARC 

addressed her in French. "Does St. Margaret 
speak Enghsh?" Cauchon asked. "Why should 
she?" the Maid quaintly answered, "not being 
on the side of the English." One other ques- 
tion of Cauchon's will illustrate the same wis- 
dom of Jeanne's judges, and also her apt wit. 
"Is St. Michael naked?" queried the Bishop of 
Beauvais. We can see the girl's eye sparkle as 
she replies questioningly : "Do you think that 
God has not wherewith to clothe him?" The 
attempt to induce her to cast a doubt on the 
reality of her visions and "voices" failed abso- 
lutely. From first to last she affirmed that she 
was continually, as she had been for years, in 
communication with saints and angels. "What- 
ever good I have done," she asserted on March 
12, "I did by the command of the Voices.' " And 
clinching the matter, she declared that the name, 
by which she was commonly known, was heaven- 
sent. "Before the deliverance of Orleans, and 
on the other days on which they spoke to me, 
my Voices' often called me — 'Jc^'^"^ the Maid, 
child of God.' " 

As to the providential character of her mis- 
sion, she never wavered. "Do those of your 
party," she was asked on March 3, firmly be- 
lieve that you come with the warrant of God?" 
To this she replied: "I know nothing about it; 
I leave it to their hearts ; but, whether they be- 
lieve it, or no, I do come with God's warrant." 



FROM DUNGEON TO SCAFFOLD 71 

"Then," said her judge, "if they so believe, is 
their opinion sound?" "Yes," answered the 
Maid, "they are not deceived." Twenty-eight 
days later, while they were striving to induce her 
to cast a doubt upon her inspiration, she ex- 
claimed: "I hold it impossible to deny the visions 
and revelations I have had, the words spoken, or 
the acts accomplished by the order of God." 
Within these twenty-eight days, time and again, 
had her persecutors captiously interrogated her, 
seeking a word or a phrase that could serve them 
as a pretext for convicting her of heresy. A 
question concerning the visions, voices, and mis- 
sion of Jeanne, served their purpose. 

Arbitrarily deciding that she was an emissary 
of the devil, and not of God — a subject which he 
had not judicially investigated, and could not 
lawfully determine — Cauchon asked the Maid if 
she was willing to submit to the judgment of 
the Church militant upon all her words and acts. 
Jeanne, it was evident, was not as familiar as 
the theologians with the distinction between the 
"Church militant" and the "Church triumphant;" 
so they graciously explained to her the meaning 
of these terms. Thereupon she replied: "I 
came to succor the King of France in the name 
of the Lord, of the Virgin Mary, and of all the 
blessed saints of paradise, in the name of the 
whole victorious Church on high, and by its com- 
mand, and to that Church I submit all my good 



72 JOAN OF ARC 

actions, and in general all that I have done, and 
all that I shall yet do." Making this answer, the 
Maid had no intention of refusing to submit to 
lawful authority. Her offer, on several occa- 
sions, to accept the decision of the Pope, and her 
request that her case be carried before the Head 
of the Church, prove sufficiently her spirit of 
obedience. She saw clearly that the "Church 
militant," whose judgment Cauchon wished her 
to accept, was Cauchon. Of the supernatural 
character of her mission, she was certain; and 
knowing the English agent's mind, and his readi- 
ness to affirm the wickedness of her claims and 
of her acts, she was unwilling to acknowledge 
his right to pass judgment on one or the other. 
The Church had not condemned Jeanne. The 
question of her inspiration had not been author- 
itatively examined; and therefore, Cauchon, 
even if his jurisdiction were indisputable, acted 
arbitrarily in requiring Jeanne to impugn her 
heavenly mission. Remembering her sex, her 
love for the Church, her devotion to all the 
Church holds dear, how mean are the fine 
phrases of the heretics a portion of the world 
pretends to admire, compared with the saying 
of the peasant girl of Lorraine, when, looking 
calmly on the instruments of torture, she chal- 
lenged her English assassins: "On my word, 
should you command my limbs to be torn apart, 
and should you drive my soul out of my body, 




JOAN OF ARC AT THE BATTLE OF JARGEAU 

Lanson 



FROM DUNGEON TO SCAFFOLD 73 

I would always say that, if I held otherwise than 
I have held, it was owing to your violence." "St. 
Gabriel — and you may be sure it was St. 
Gabriel — visited me six days ago," she added, 
"on the feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross." 
Thus courageously she reaffirmed her commerce 
with heaven; and, after this resolute protesta- 
tion, Cauchon cannot have been astonished at 
her declaration, a week later, that: "If she were 
on the road to the grave, and saw the pyre 
lighted — nay, if the flames were roasting her 
flesh, she would say no word other than what 
she had said." 

Omitting many interesting details of Jeanne's 
mock trial, we have summed up the case as it 
stood on May 23, 143 1. A day later, Cauchon, 
who, it would seem, was inspired, but not by 
heavenly spirits, to pile infamy on infamy, sum- 
moned Jeanne to the cemetery of St. Ouen. On 
a raised platform sat the Bishop of Beauvais 
and three other Bishops, and with them, Beau- 
fort, the Cardinal of Winchester, and a number 
of doctors. From another stage, the Maid faced 
these dignitaries, and a rabble, not wholly 
friendly. Forthwith a preacher addressed her in 
abusive terms, ending with a demand that she 
should recant her errors and submit to the 
Church militant. "I have requested that the 
whole process be sent to Rome," Jeanne re- 
sponded: "I appeal to God and the Pope." The 



74 JOAN OF ARC 

executioner was ready to kindle the fire, they 
told her, unless she abjured. A crowd of clerics 
closed around her, some rebuking, others ad- 
monishing, counselling, and others pleading with 
her not to court death. A secretary of the 
judges proffered her a scrap of paper, begging 
her to sign it, and thus save her life. The Maid 
could not read. In a low tone the secre- 
tary read. The purport of the document 
was vague enough. They promised that upon 
her signing it, the galling chains would be re- 
moved, and that she should be allowed to hear 
Mass and to receive the Sacraments. Between 
her fingers a pen was inserted. Overcome by 
physical weakness, by emotion, by her isolation, 
by the suggestion of her enemies, she described 
an O on the paper. Her name she could not 
write. Taking her hand in his, Cauchon's secre- 
tary guided it so that the signature counterfeited 
the form of a cross. Immediately the word 
passed around: "she has abjured! she has ab- 
jured!" 

The Bishop of Beauvais, not deficient in fore- 
thought, had provided himself with two drafts 
of a sentence. By one, the Maid was con- 
demned to the flames ; the substance of the other, 
we shall soon know. Putting aside the death 
sentence, the unjust judge arose and mercifully 
informed his innocent victim, that, because she 
had recanted her errors, he relieved her from 



FROM DUNGEON TO SCAFFOLD 75 

excommunication and received her again into 
the bosom of the Church. Then he read to her 
a formal sentence : She had been guilty of grave 
sins; these sins must be expiated, and, therefore, 
she was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, 
on the bread of sorrow and the water of anguish. 
To the cell she had so long suffered in, Jeanne 
was led back. Her chains were not removed; 
the five troopers were still her companions. 
Ordered to put on a woman's dress, she now 
consented, and for three days she wore this 
apparel. On the morning of May 2y, desiring 
to get out of bed, she asked the soldiers to un- 
lock the fetters and manacles that shackled her 
tight. The base fellows flung at her the dress 
of a man — the very clothes she had so long worn. 
The woman's dress had been taken away. She 
put on the male apparel. Promptly the news 
was carried to Cauchon. With several con- 
suitors he went to the jail on the next morning 
and demanded of her why she had reassumed a 
man's costume. The Maid's answer should have 
shamed the clerics: "As I live in company with 
men it is more decent in me to wear men's dress." 
Then Cauchon asked if she had recently heard her 
"voices," and if she still believed they were St. 
Catharine and St. Margaret. Her "voices" had 
spoken with her, she replied, and she still had 
faith in them. The purpose of the Bishop was 
to convict Jeanne of a relapse into heresy. In 



76 JOAN OF ARC 

fact, by the terms of the document to which, 
reluctantly and irresponsibly, she had subscribed 
a cross mark, in the cemetery of St. Ouen, she 
was bound to wear a woman's clothes and to re- 
pudiate her mission. A fraud had been perpe- 
trated by the officious secretary of the judges. 
Reading to the frightened Maid a short and in- 
definite manuscript, he substituted another, 
definite and comprehensive. Unaware of the 
method by which she had been cheated, no 
sooner did Jeanne learn the character of the 
abjuration they attributed to her, than she pub- 
licly denounced it. "If I said that God has not 
sent me," were her words to Cauchon, "I should 
damn myself; for in truth, it is God who sent 
me. If I revoke anything I lied, or I acted 
through fear of fire. I had rather do my 
penance, at once, by dying, than longer to endure 
such sufferings in this prison. Whatever they 
made me deny, I have never done anything 
against God nor against the Faith. I intended, 
and so I now declare, formally, to revoke 
nothing." 

There was joy in the English camp. The com- 
mon soldiers had not been pleased with the do- 
ings in the cemetery of St. Ouen. They went 
there to see the woman burned, and they believed 
the clergy had tricked them and showed undue 
favor to the witch. Their displeasure had been 
openly shown by threats, cries, and naked 



FROM DUNGEON TO SCAFFOLD 11 

weapons. The removal, by the guards, of her 
womanly attire, and their refusal to return it, 
showed a hatred that could be appeased only by 
her murder. They had not long to wait. A 
meeting of the consultors was called on May 29. 
More than forty attended. Cauchon accused the 
Maid of having relapsed into heresy; and all 
those present so adjudged. 

Early in the morning of May 30, 1431, the 
Maid was summoned to appear, at eight o'clock, 
in the market-place of Rouen. Is it any wonder 
that the tears welled from her eyes, or that, 
sobbing, she exclaimed : "Can it be that they will 
treat me thus cruelly! To think that my body, 
clean and whole, and incorrupted, shall to-day be 
consumed, reduced to ashes! I had rather have 
them hack my neck seven times, than be burned. 
Alas! Had I been in the ecclesiastical prison, 
and guarded by the Church officials, and not by 
my enemies, the English, I should not have made 
so miserable an end." And then, as well she 
might, she remembered the Seat of Justice: "I 
appeal," she cried, "before God, the Great Judge, 
against the grievous wrongs and injuries done 
unto me." 

They permitted a priest to visit her, and to 
him the Maid confessed twice over. After con- 
sultation with the theologians, Cauchon allowed 
her to receive Holy Communion, and one can 
well believe the testimony of her confessor that 



78 JOAN OF ARC 

her piety was indescribable. The time was short. 
She was placed on a car and hurried to the 
market-place, guarded by one hundred and 
twenty armed English soldiers. 

We have been in the market-place, amid the 
ten thousand spectators, and have surveyed the 
platforms on which the Cardinal of Winchester, 
the bishops and the doctors are seated. It is 
nine o'clock. The young girl, for whom the 
English paid a price almost double that of a 
king, mounts the scaffold. On a foundation of 
masonry, the fagots are piled high. Over them 
rises the stake, topped by the lying inscription: 
"Jeanne, who called herself the Maid, a liar, a 
pernicious woman, a deceiver of the people, a 
soothsayer, a superstitious woman, a blasphemer 
of God, a presumptuous woman, an unbeliever, 
a boaster, an idolatrous, a cruel, dissolute woman, 
an invocatrix of devils, apostate, schismatic and 
heretic." 

Maiden-like, Jeanne wears a long gown; her 
head is covered. Removing the kerchief, the 
executioner replaces it by a paper mitre, on 
which are inscribed the words: "Heretic, Re- 
lapsed, Apostate, Idolater." A cleric appointed 
by Cauchon, addresses the "heretic" at great 
length — a full hour, by the dial — and closes by 
excommunicating her, and handing her over to 
the secular power. Before the crowd, Jeanne 
falls upon her knees, and, in a loud voice prays: 



FROM DUNGEON TO SCAFFOLD 79 

"Holy Trinity, have pity on me, I believe in 
you! Jesus have pity on me! O Mary, pray for 
me! St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Catharine. St. 
Margaret, aid me! All ye who are here, pardon 
me as I pardon you! Do you, priests, each one, 
say a Mass for the repose of my soul. Do not 
accuse my King: for what I did, he is not re- 
sponsible; and if I did ill, he is innocent. O 
Jesus ! O Mary ! All yet blest saints in paradise, 
protect me! Succor me!" Even Cauchon cannot 
restrain a tear; men with softer hearts weep as 
freely as you and I. 

"Lift up a crucifix," says the Maid, "so that 
I may have it continually before my eyes, until 
my death." They tie her to the stake. 
On her left breast rests the rude wooden 
Cross. The smoke rises; the flames em- 
brace her. Heaven opens to her. "St. Michael ! 
St. Michael!" she cries, joyfully; and then, vic- 
torious in the grasp of death, she challenges her 
unjust judges, with the memorable words: "No 
my Voices' did not deceive me; my mission was 
from God. Jesus! Jesus!" 

Plash ! The water reddens as the Maid's bleed- 
ing heart strikes the surface of the Seine, and 
sinks down into the softened ooze. Defeat, the 
neglect of ungrateful friends, the contumely of 
heartless enemies, an outcast criminal's death — 
do these, one, or all, signify that our Lord has 
forsaken His great-hearted child? Who hath 



80 JOAN OF ARC 

known the mind of the Lord ! The cup of strong 
wine that the Lord holdeth in His hand, doth He 
not turn it this way and that? Aye! And to the 
wicked alone doth He give the dregs. We shall 
see them drink the bitter draught, while heaven 
itself bears witness that the mission of the peas- 
ant Maid of Arc was indeed from God. 



V 



FROM ROUEN TO ROME. 

"We have burned a saint; we are ruined!" 
So spake Jean Thiessart to one, to another — to 
all who would listen — as, pensively, he made his 
way through the crowd, that, satiated, or sick- 
ened, with the odor of the Maid's burning flesh, 
hurried out of the market-place of Rouen into 
the neighboring streets. No common man was 
Jean Thiessart, but, indeed, the secretary of the 
King of England. 

On the morrow, among courtiers, soldiers, 
clerics and townfolk, there were whisperings 
about other strange sayings and doings. It was 
reported, and the story was true, that, as Jean 
was riding to the scaffold, Loiseleur — the miser- 
able fellow who, conspiring against her life, had 
lied to her — jumped on the moving car. Over- 
come by remorse, he sought the pardon of her 
whom he had so gravely injured ; but the guards 
cast him off, and, as he lay on the ground, buf- 
feted him, and, were it not for the officers, would 
have killed him. Why should he, who had en- 
deavored, by the vilest means, to convict the girl 

of heresy and of sorcery, kneel at her feet, im- 

81 



82 JOAN OF ARC 

ploring? Did he know her to be innocent? Per- 
haps Jean Thiessart was right, and they had 
burned a saint. 

The story of the executioner, every one knew. 
Wherever he turned, he saw a bleeding heart. 
The waters of the Seine had not hidden the heart 
from his view. Quaking, he had presented him- 
self to the clergy. "God will never pardon me," 
he cried, and cried again, as he told how the oil 
and sulphur had failed, and how he found the 
Maid's heart, sound and whole. Could it be that 
they had burned a saint ! Would ruin follow ! 

During the process, Jeanne had spoken words 
which no one who heard them, or who heard of 
them, could forget. On February 24, at the 
third public session, turning to Cauchon, she 
thus addressed him: "You say you are my 
judge; beware of what you do, for, verily, I am 
sent by God, and you are putting yourself in 
great danger." At the solemn session of May 
2, when, in the presence of sixty-three con- 
suitors, the Bishop of Beauvais tried to force a 
plea of guilty from her, threatening her with 
punishment by fire, the Maid warned him once 
again : "If you do to me what you say, beware ! 
for evil shall come to your body and to your 
soul." And on the last day of her life, as 
Cauchon, visiting her in the jail, tried to extort 
from her a renunciation of her claim to a 
heavenly mission, her answer was a refusal and 



FROM ROUEN TO ROME 83 

a summons: "Bishop, through you I die. I 
appeal from you to God!" If they had burned 
a saint, Cauchon and his abettors might well 
feel anxious as they recalled the Maid's admon- 
itions and her fearless appeal to the divine Seat 
of Justice. 

Neither Cauchon, nor his criminal tools, had 
greater cause for alarm than had their cruel 
masters, the English deputies of the boy king, 
Henry VI. Warning her wicked judge, menac- 
ing him with the vengeance of God, the Maid 
had also prophesied the ruination of the invaders 
of her fatherland. During the fifth public inter- 
rogatory, on March i, 143 1, enthused by the 
memory of the letter she addressed to the Eng- 
lish king in his regent, two years earlier, on the 
eve of her departure from Blois to rescue 
Orleans, she uttered these ominous words: "Be- 
fore seven years have passed, the English shall 
pay a forfeit much larger than that of Orleans. 
They will suffer a loss greater than any they 
have suffered in France; and this loss will come 
to them through a grand victory which God will 
send to the French." "How do you know this?" 
asked Cauchon; to whom the Maid answered: 
"I know it by revelation. This shall happen 
within seven years, and I should regret its not 
happening long before the expiration of that 
time." Cauchon plied her with questions, and 
again he demanded: "How do you know these 



84 JOAN OF ARC 

things will happen?" Whereupon she replied: 
"I know these things through SS. Catharine and 
Margaret." 

Seventeen days later, when the judges com- 
manded her to deny the reality of her heavenly 
visions and voices, the Maid prophesied once 
more, with these words : "As to the good deeds 
I have done, and as to my mission, I leave them 
to the King of Heaven, who sent me to Charles, 
son of Charles, King of France, who shall be 
King of France. You shall see the French gain 
a great advantage, soon; so great that almost 
the whole kingdom will be wondrously corn- 
moved. I say this, in order that when it hap- 
pens, men may remember that I said it." Were 
these vain words? Or were they inspired by 
heaven — messages to a saint from SS. Catharine 
and Margaret? If Jean Thiessart, witnessing 
the Maid's death, formed a just conclusion, then, 
well may the English be troubled about the 
future. 

As Jeanne said, so it happened. Six months 
after her murder, desiring to tone up the waning 
courage of his army and to impress upon the 
French people the might and resolve of England, 
the Duke of Bedford challenged once more the 
right of Charles to the French throne. Pomp- 
ously, Henry VI. was anointed and crowned 
King of France, at Paris, on December 17, 143 1, 
by the Cardinal of Winchester. The effect of 



FROM ROUEN TO ROME 85 

this ceremonious display in the capital did not 
equal their hopes, and the English leaders began 
to lose faith in the success of their cause. Could 
they have made terms with the French king, they 
would have done so, gladly. Charles, however, 
showed unusual firmness. He fought the enemy 
at every point; and though he did not fight in- 
cessantly, with might and main, as Jeanne al- 
ways counselled, still he fought; now winning, 
now losing, a battle, but constantly gaining 
ground. At length he had determined that the 
foreigner should be driven out of the whole of 
France. 

Not alone in the field did the English suffer 
reverses. Philip of Burgundy turned against 
Bedford, a year after the crowning of Henry VI. 
at Paris. Patriotism was not the motive that 
influenced Philip. Interest prompted him to 
abandon the English, but he did not join hands 
with Charles. He was not averse to forming a 
union with his old enemy, provided he could have 
the best of the bargain. The King negotiated with 
the Duke, while delaying an agreement in the 
hope that, showing no anxiety. Burgundy might 
be induced to lessen his demands. In time the 
pressure from friends in France and outside of 
France, compelled Charles to yield; and in Sep- 
tember, 1435, the King of France and the Duke 
of Burgundy buried their enmities before the 
altar of the Church of St. Wast, at Arras. A 



86 JOAN OF ARC 

week earlier, death had deprived the English of 
their great leader, Bedford. The loss of their 
powerful ally, the Duke of Burgundy, was only 
the beginning of the end. Seven months later 
they paid a forfeit much larger than that of 
Orleans, and suffered a loss greater than any 
they had suffered in France. On April 13, 
1436, Paris surrendered to the forces of Charles 
VIL, and amid cries of : "Long live the King" — 
"Accursed be the English!" the French entered 
the capital which had been held by the enemies 
of the Crown during eighteen long years. Thus 
was the prophecy of Jeanne in part fulfilled. The 
term of seven years had not closed — indeed the 
sixth year had barely opened, counting from the 
day on which she foretold the grand victory that 
God would send to the French. And when it 
happened as she said, there were men who re- 
membered the Maid's words; and among these, 
not a few recalled the saying of Jean Thiessart: 
"We have burned a saint; we are ruined." 

Over the capture of Paris, the whole kingdom 
was "wondrously commoved." The King put on 
a new manhood; he grew firmer, bolder, more 
energetic. At the head of his army, he charged 
with a spirit like unto that of the young peasant 
maiden of Domremy. Less subservient to the 
royal Council, he directed the affairs of his 
kingdom, and, while pushing back the invader, 
reorganized his forces. Eight years after the 



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TRIUMPHANT ENTRY OF JOAN OF ARC INTO ORLfiANS 
Painting hi/ J. J. Scherrer 



FROM ROUEN TO ROME 87 

taking of the capital, he consented, at Tours, to 
sign a truce with the EngHsh. From 1444 to 
1449, h^ labored, seriously and wisely, to undo 
the evil effects of the long wars, consolidating 
his power, securing to his subjects the benefits 
of orderly government, encouraging agriculture 
and the industries that can flourish only where 
peace reigns. When, on March 24, 1449, the 
English broke the truce of Tours, they had a 
new France to cope with. 

Into the stronghold of the usurpers, Nor- 
mandy, the French army marched, Charles him- 
self commanding. Fortress after fortress sur- 
rendered. From siege to siege, the King ad- 
vanced, victory ever accompanying him. On the 
sixth of October he summoned Rouen to open 
its gates. The inhabitants accepted the terms 
offered them, but the Duke of Somerset, who 
had succeeded Bedford as Lieutenant of Henry 
VI., made a show of defending the city. On the 
hill of St. Catharine it was that, on the nine- 
teenth of the month, Charles planted his artillery. 
Ten days later Somerset capitulated. Regard- 
less of snow and of biting frosts, the King be- 
sieged Harfleur. A month afterwards, the Eng- 
lish surrendered. In the Spring of 1450, rein- 
forcements came from England, but they availed 
nothing. Each month, increasing the conquests, 
increased also the courage and the enthusiasm of 
the French army. On June 5, they invested 



88 JOAN OF ARC 

Caen, the second great city of Normandy. The 
Duke of Somerset, here, as at Rouen, defended 
as best he could ; but the French attack was irre- 
sistible, and, on the nineteenth day of the 
siege, he was compelled to capitulate once 
again. Cherbourg fell on the twelfth of August 
— a date that marks the ruin of the English in 
Normandy. 

A province, ample and rich, Guyenne, still ac- 
knowledged, as, ever since Philip the Fair's im- 
prudently generous concession, it had acknowl- 
edged, the dominion of the English. Faithful to 
his purpose of driving the invader out of the 
whole of France, Charles, within a month after 
the capture of Cherbourg, sent a goodly force 
into Guyenne, under skilful leaders. Before 
Winter had set in, many towns were freed from 
English rule. In the Spring of 1451, the French 
re-opened the campaign and vanquished all oppo- 
sition. On the twelfth of June, Bordeaux sub- 
mitted; on the twentieth of August, Bayonne 
ceased to resist. Thus Guyenne, too, was freed 
from the yoke of the foreigner. However, this 
conquest was not final. Resenting the unreason- 
able exactions of certain French officials, the 
inhabitants of Bordeaux secretly agreed with 
the English, in 1452, to betray the city into their 
hands. A considerable force sailed from Eng- 
land, and, on October 22, entered Bordeaux. 
Though they recovered several towns in the 



FROM ROUEN TO ROME 89 

neighborhood, Charles held the English in check 
until the June following, when, at the head of 
his army, he put the invader on the defensive. 
At Castillon, where, on July 17, 1453, they lost 
their leader, Lord Talbot, the English suffered 
an irremediable defeat. Bordeaux still held out; 
but, besieged by land and sea, it submitted for 
the second, and last time, on the ninth of 
October. 

"Do SS. Catharine and Margaret hate the 
English?" was a question asked of the Maid by 
her wily judge, during the trial at Rouen. Very 
simply she answered : "They love what our Lord 
loves, and hate what He hates." A question no 
less artful followed: "Does God hate the Eng- 
lish?" The Maid's response we may fitly recall 
now: "Of God's love or hate of the English, 
and of what He does with their souls, I know 
nothing whatsoever, but well do I know that they 
will be expelled from France — except those who 
shall die on its soil." Twenty-two years and six 
months have run by. The English have been 
expelled from France — all of them, except only 
those who died on its soil. They are ruined, as 
Jean Thiessart lamented they would be, on the 
day he declared they had burned a saint. And 
Charles, son of Charles, King of France, to 
whom the Maid was sent, "by the King of 
Heaven," with the promise that he should be 



90 JOAN OF ARC 

King of France, is, at length, the King of 
France — united France. 

As Jeanne foretold, beginning with the first 
day on which she publicly announced her mission 
from heaven, so it befell the English invader. 
How fared it with Cauchon and his abettors who 
maligned her, persecuted her, burned her? Did 
evil come to them, as she warned them that evil 
\yould? Hearing the facts, each listener may 
form his own judgment. While she stood on 
the scaffold, in the market-place at Rouen, 
Master Nicholas Midi preached at her, using 
language ill-befitting the moment, or the person 
of the innocent girl. Master Midi was a lumi- 
nary of the University of Paris. A henchman of 
Cauchon, he had been among the first of those 
chosen by the Bishop to contrive the process and 
to secure the conviction of the Maid. Gossips 
had not ceased talking over the incidents of her 
execution, when Nicholas Midi was stricken with 
leprosy. We have seen Loiseleur on the ground, 
beside the executioner's car, and the English 
soldiers beating him. They would have killed 
him rather than that he should obtain from the 
Maid the pardon he asked for. Loiseleur's was 
a base soul. Not only had he deceived Jeanne, 
conspiring with Cauchon to make her conviction 
sure, but when the inhuman Bishop would have 
tortured the girl, he was one of a cowardly three 
who voted: Aye. At Bale, Loiseleur's life was 



FROM ROUEN TO ROME 91 

snuffed out, like a candle flame in the whirl of 
the wind. Cauchon's chief agent, Jean d'Estivet, 
canon of the diocese of Beauvais, the merciless 
prosecutor and persecutor of the Maid, from the 
day she fell under his heavy hand until the hour 
in which the fagots were lighted beneath her 
girlish body — ^Jean d'Estivet's corpse was found 
— not in the Seine, but in a sewer. When Paris 
was captured by the French, the infamous Cau- 
chon — traitor as well as murderer — was there, a 
witness to the fulfilment of his saintly victim's 
prophecy. How he schemed to get the Maid 
away from the Burgundians we know. Then 
and afterwards, every act of his was inspired by 
an unholy ambition. When Jeanne revived the 
patriotism of the French people, the inhabitants 
of Beauvais took the King's side; and as Cau- 
chon, then Bishop of Beauvais, supported the 
cause of the foreign invader, his flock refused 
him, not only obedience, but even a home in the 
city. In England, he found a patron: the 
Cardinal of Winchester. The archiepiscopal 
See of Rouen was vacant. With the English 
cardinal's influence, Cauchon hoped to obtain 
this valuable prize. To make sure of this influ- 
ence he violated all law, unjustly trying and 
unjustly executing Jeanne d'Arc. Thus effect- 
ing what the English cardinal, as well as the 
military leaders, desired, he had good reason for 
thinking that he had earned a right to their 



92 JOAN OF ARC 

favor. Of petty honors, his patron was not 
chary; but his ambition to rule the See of an 
archbishop was never gratified. Six years after 
the taking of Paris, ruin came to him. While in 
the act of shaving, incontinently his soul parted 
from his body, at the summons of the Judge to 
whose justice Jeanne appealed, as against the 
injustice of the Bishop of Beauvais. As Cauchon 
fell to the ground, well might it be that he heard 
a voice, repeating, as during the years a voice 
had often repeated, the parting words of the 
Maid: "Bishop, through you I die; I appeal 
from you to God." 

The Cardinal of Winchester, the political pre- 
late who ordered that the ashes of the bones of 
Jeanne d'Arc, as well as her bleeding heart, 
should be cast into the Seine, died in his bed. 
Those who stood nigh to him on the morning of 
the Maid's execution, related that, as she prayed 
aloud, he could not hold back his tears. Many a 
time after that sad day, the Cardinal had cause 
for weeping. Through the enmity of his own 
nephew, the Duke of Gloucester, he was prac- 
tically exiled from England during two whole 
years. His wealth, and his willingness to loan 
money to the King, as often as it was demanded, 
preserved him from misfortunes greater than the 
loss of influence at Court. On his deathbed — so 
it was reported — the patron of Cauchon, the man 
who incited him to deprive a chaste and generous 



FROM ROUEN TO ROME 93 

heroine of her Hfe, and who looked on while the 
flames consumed her — all save her heart — that 
man, losing life, "lamented that money could 
not purchase life." 

Henry VL of England, in whose name were 
perpetrated all the wrongs Jeanne the Maid suf- 
fered, had not completed his tenth year when she 
was burned in the fish market of Rouen. Ruined 
in France, as we have seen, Henry was after- 
wards more completely ruined at home. In the 
same year that Charles conquered Guyenne, and 
thus constituted the kingdom Jeanne was com- 
missioned to found, Henry lost his mind; and he 
recovered it only to lose his liberty. Twice im- 
prisoned by rebellious subjects, denounced by 
Parliament as an usurper, his crown declared 
forfeited, compelled to sue for aid from the 
French, whose country he had assailed, coveting 
its crown — an outcast, heartbroken by the mur- 
der of his son and heir, Henry VL met death at 
the hand of an assassin. Ruin like unto this 
even Jean Thiessart cannot have foreseen. 

On account of the obstacles they placed in her 
way from the day she first entered Chinon until 
her capture at Compiegne, we shall do the royal 
Council no injustice if we number its members 
among the Maid's enemies. Against the Coun- 
cil's will, I dare maintain that Jeanne d'Arc 
saved the kingdom of France. Seeking to dis- 
credit her while she led them from victory to 



94 JOAN OF ARC 

victory, they deserted her when she was cap- 
tured. Abandoned by the men whom she had 
made great, the Maid died friendless at Rouen. 
They seemed to ratify the verdict of Cauchon, 
and with the EngHsh, to denounce her as a 
heretic, a sorceress, and a deceiver. Chiefest 
among these cowards, if not criminals, was the 
first minister of the King, Georges de la Tre- 
moille, baron of Sully, a false heart, who, neither 
unfriendly to the Burgundians, nor wholly 
inimical to the English, had controlled the policy 
and, indeed, the person of Charles. Envy, greed 
and ambition had impelled La Tremoille to 
oppose the Maid's plans. Evil came to his gross 
body, and, of all places, at Chinon, in the very 
castle where Jeanne first met the Dauphin. 
There, at the end of June, 1433, a crowd of 
conspiring nobles attacked the baron while he 
lay abed. They slashed his head, stabbed him in 
the belly, and then jailed him. He was per- 
mitted to purchase his life, but Charles banished 
him from the Court. Though the King had no 
knowledge of the plot against his first minister 
he could not regret the incident which relieved 
him of a tyrannical master. The Council that 
replaced La Tremoille's neither sought nor ob- 
tained control of the King. As the events we 
have recorded plainly show, with a new Council, 
France gained a new Charles. 

If the Council proved false, was not Charles 



FROM ROUEN TO ROME 95 

true to the Maid? Surely he, to whom she 
brought the succor of the King of Heaven; he, 
whom she anointed and crowned at Rheims; he, 
to whom she gave a kingdom, an army, subjects, 
as well as a crown; he, for whom she risked her 
life and shed her blood, did not abandon her! 
The truth is not always flattering to human 
nature, and, if the truth must be told, even 
Charles abandoned the heroic girl to whom he 
owed a debt incalculable. In vain have historians 
searched for the proofs of his gratitude or of his 
justice to his heroic benefactor. Not one single 
shred of evidence, favoring him, has been dis- 
covered. To ransom her from the English he 
made no effort; against her unjust trial he 
entered no protest. Of indignation or grief 
there is no sign. And yet, to the last, she was 
true to her King. Often during the trial she 
spoke of him reverently. Her saints had re- 
vealed to her knowledge that would rejoice him, 
and she longed for an opportunity to make him 
the partner of her secrets. Not once did she 
complain of his neglect. Of patriotism and 
loyalty, never has there been a nobler, loftier, 
manlier exemplar than Jeanne the Maid. On the 
twenty-fourth of May, 143 1, the day on which 
Cauchon's agents cheated her by the substitution 
of a false "confession," as she stood facing the 
crowd in the cemetery of St. Ouen, Guillaume 
£rard, doctor of the University, the preacher 



96 JOAN OF ARC 

selected to expose, correct and censure her 
errors, denounced her King as a heretic and a 
schismatic. To emphasize his words he ad- 
dressed the Maid directly: "Jeanne, it is to you 
I speak," and here he pointed his finger at her. 
"To you I say that your King is a heretic and a 
schismatic." Jeanne did not permit him to pro- 
ceed, but, interrupting him, before the vast 
assembly, she exclaimed loudly: "By my faith, 
and with due reverence, I dare to say to you, 
and to swear it on my life, that he is the most 
noble Christian of all Christians, and the one 
who most loves the faith and the Church, and he 
is in no wise what you say." Six days later, 
when, before mounting the pyre, she kneeled on 
the ground, beseeching our Saviour and the 
angels and saints to have pity on her, the Maid 
did not forget the King: "Let not my King be 
accused," she prayed, sobbing. "In what I did, 
he was not involved, and should I have done 
wrong, he is innocent." If the Cardinal of 
Winchester shed tears — and it was rumored that 
he did — while listening to these expressions of 
tender, hearty loyalty, need we be astonished! 
Had even Cauchon wept I should not wonder. 
Nineteen years after Jeanne's pathetic mani- 
festation of chivalrous fidelity, the King of 
France showed the first sign of gratitude to his 
benefactor, and of abiding faith in her heavenly 
mission. Perhaps, entering Rouen, and looking 



FROM ROUEN TO ROME 97 

Upon the place where her uncorrupted body was 
consumed as a punishment for great service ren- 
dered to him, the memories of her unselfish, her 
noble deeds, awakened remorse in his soul. Per- 
haps, too, he learned then, for the first time, from 
eye-witnesses, how foully she had been abused, 
and how shamefully the forms of law had been 
violated in order to insure her conviction as an 
infamous criminal. Whether moved by regret, 
pride, sympathy, or by a sense of duty, the fact 
is that, on the fifteenth day of February, 1450, 
three months after the capture of Rouen, Charles 
commissioned Guillaume Bouille, dean of the 
chapter of Rouen, and a former rector of the 
University of Paris, to inquire how and why 
Jeanne the Maid was tried and condemned. 

"Whereas, some time ago," thus wrote King 
Charles, "Jeanne the Maid was captured and 
seized by our ancient enemies and adversaries, 
the English, and was brought into the city of 
Rouen, and by certain persons to this end de- 
puted, an action was entered against her; and 
whereas, during the trial of the said action, 
many faults and abuses were by those persons 
done and committed; and, whereas, finally, on 
account of the great hate our aforesaid enemies 
bore her, iniquitously and unreasonably, and 
most cruelly, they put her to death; and because 
we desire to know the truth concerning the 
aforesaid process; we order, command, and ex- 



98 JOAN OF ARC 

pressly enjoin that you shall well and diligently 
inform yourself about the aforesaid matter." 
To this end Guillaume Bouille was authorized 
to take possession of the documents relating to 
the trial, and to use all legal means to obtain the 
said documents from those who held them, and 
to call upon all the King's officials and subjects to 
aid in acquiring the said documents. 

The former rector of the University of Paris 
discovered in Rouen seven of those who had 
taken part in the trial of Jeanne the Maid, or 
who had assisted at her execution in the fish 
market. Their testimony he reported in due 
form to the King, who submitted it to a number 
of theologians and canonists. By these experts 
he was advised that the Maid, having been tried 
by a tribunal which pretended to be ecclesias- 
tical, and having been adjudged guilty of an 
ecclesiastical offence, he could not right the 
wrong done to her, if, as appeared, wrong had 
been done. Only at Rome could justice be 
sought, in the Court of Appeal of which the 
Pope is the deciding judge. 

In 1452 Cardinal d'Estouteville, as legate of 
Pope Nicholas V., exercised a special authority 
in France. To examine into the case of Jeanne 
d'Arc, he had no mandate. Still, at the King's 
request, the Cardinal opened an inquiry, un- 
official though none the less formal and compre- 
hensive. Through a delegate, twenty witnesses 



FROM ROUEN TO ROME 99 

were interrogated, and their testimony having 
been sifted and weighed by doctors of approved 
learning, not only in France but also at Rome, 
a petition was presented to the Holy See, asking 
for a juridical review of the Maid's process. 
This request placed the Pope in a delicate 
position. Cardinal d'Estouteville having acted 
at the request of the King of France, the Cardi- 
nal's inquiry could not be accepted at Rome 
except as the King's inquiry. Pleading, as a 
King, Charles appeared to be the accuser of the 
King of England, Henry VI., by whose order 
the Maid had been tried, and with whose con- 
sent, and, indeed, by whose command she had 
been burned at the stake. Condemned under the 
forms of ecclesiastical law, Jeanne had been 
burned in pursuance of an ordinance of the 
English law. The King of England could not 
be expected to submit to a decision unfavorable 
to himself, without attempting to influence the 
Holy See. Threats of reprisal, or even of 
schism, were not improbable. Thus, instead of 
settling a judicial question, there was danger of 
the Pope's being involved in a political quarrel. 
Charles recognized his error and withdrew from 
the case. Thereupon, the Maid's venerable 
mother Isabelle, and the Maid's brothers, Pierre 
and Jean, and a number of their relatives, peti- 
tioned the Holy See to appoint a commission, 
before whom they might produce legal evidence 



100 JOAN OF ARC 

proving that Jeanne had been wickedly con- 
demned. Honor is dearer than life ; wherefore, 
they desired to recover the Maid's honor, of 
which the English had robbed her. The mark 
of infamy unjustly stamped upon themselves, her 
family wished also to remove. In support of 
their petition, they charged that the Maid was 
not tried according to the regular forms of law; 
that the testimony adduced against her did not 
warrant a conviction; that she was denied her 
right of appeal to the Apostolic See; and that 
the whole process was null, and the sentence 
iniquitous. 

To Calixtus III., the petition of Jeanne's 
mother and brothers was duly presented, and on 
June II, 1455, just two months and three days 
after his election to the Papal chair, this illus- 
trious Pontiff, in a letter addressed to the Arch- 
bishop of Rheims, and to the Bishops of Paris 
and of Coutances, nominated a commission to 
review Jeanne's process. These ecclesiastics 
were empowered and ordered, citing witnesses, 
to hear both sides of the case; and, having pro- 
cured and considered all the requisite testimony, 
to render a final sentence, binding under pain of 
ecclesiastical censures. 

The last cry of the Maid: "J^^u! Jesu!" was 
heard in paradise, by the King who entrusted 
her with a glorious mission — the one King who 
never deserts a loyal friend. "Shed no tears for 



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JOAN OF AKC AT THE CONSECRATION OF CHARLES VII 
Ingres, the Louvre 



FROM ROUEN TO ROME 101 

the Maid," I said as the tongues of fire lapped 
her flesh on the pyre at Rouen, "believe firmly 
that the God of heaven will aid her still." In 
His court justice has already been done to her. 
At Rome, in the court of the Vicar of Christ, 
justice shall be done to her. There, the honor 
of the dead is esteemed as highly as the honor of 
the living. There, if the mark of infamy has 
been unjustly stamped upon any Christian 
through the abuse of the sacred law of the 
Church, the shameful mark will be effaced; 
there, the calumniators will be censured; and 
honor, priceless honor, will be restored for all 
time and in all lands. The awful wrongs in- 
flicted at Rouen upon the "child of God," Jeanne 
the Maid, will surely be righted at Rome. 



VI 



ROME'S JUSTICE. 

On a November morning, 1455, the seventh of 
the month, a notable group of men and women 
entered the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris. 
Perhaps they chose the portal to the right, St. 
Anne's, or the portal to the left, the Virgin's, 
though it pleases me to see the great central 
doors swing open and a feeble, white haired 
matron leading the clerics, lawyers, and common 
folk, as they pass under the "Last Judgment," 
sculptured by devout, skilful and strong hands, 
in the stone archivolt. A verger guides the 
assemblage through the aisles, halting where, 
formally disposed, three ecclesiastics expectantly 
await. At their feet, the venerable woman, 
foremost in the procession, prostrates herself, 
and, sobbing, exclaims: "Jeanne d'Arc was my 
daughter. I brought her up in the fear of God 
and in the traditions of the Church, according to 
her age and to her condition, as one who lived in 
the meadows and in the fields. She confessed 
and communicated every month, went to church 
frequently, and fasted as prescribed. Her ene- 
mies, nevertheless, without regard to her denials 

and appeals, falsely imputed crimes to her, at 

102 



ROME'S JUSTICE 103 

the risk of their souls. . . . Here, now that 
our Holy Father, defender of the truth and help 
of the oppressed, has graciously accorded me 
judges, I come to pour forth my plaint, long 
repressed; I come to demand justice." There- 
upon, beseechingly, the mother of the Maid 
stretched forth a worn hand — two worn and 
rugged hands — in which she held the apostolic 
letter of Calixtus IH. ; proffering the document 
now to one, now to another, of the seated 
ecclesiastics. 

Among those who entered with the venerable 
petitioner, a man spoke up: "Where Jeanne's 
accusers presumed crime," said he, "there is, 
instead, virtue; where they presume heresy, 
there is religion; where they presumed a lie, 
there is truth; where they presumed shame, 
there is glory. I appeal to you, delegates of the 
Sovereign Pontiff, listen with compassionate 
benignity to the grievances of this woman who 
asks of you justice!" From the altars of the 
cathedral, worshippers had gathered around the 
kneeling matron. Out of the streets, the know- 
ing and the curious had made their way. A 
goodly crowd followed the speaker's words, 
sympathetically. When he ceased, spontaneously 
and accordantly they shouted : "Justice ! Justice !" 

It was Jean Juvenal des Ursins, Archbishop of 
Rheims, who answered in behalf of himself and 
his co-delegates, Guillaume Chartier, Bishop of 



104 JOAN OF ARC 

Paris, and Richard de Longueuil, Bishop of 
Coutances: "Examining carefully and equit- 
ably the grievances of the widow," the Arch- 
bishop of Rheims declared that he and his fel- 
low-judges would be "merely obeying the will of 
the Holy See, the teachings of the Scripture, 
and the natural dictates of conscience." Pru- 
dently he counselled the Maid's mother to con- 
sult good advisers, lest, carried away by her 
feelings, she should only increase her sorrows. 
If the judgment already rendered were reaf- 
firmed, and if another condemnation were added 
to the first, would she not, as long as she lived, 
regret her indiscreet zeal? 

Isabelle's friends answered for her: "Con- 
fident in the equity of our cause, we demand a 
public trial, and we are ready to appear." The 
judges, having deliberated, adjourned the case 
until the seventeenth of the month, and fixed the 
place of meeting in the episcopal court of Paris. 

What may be fitly called the trial of Cauchon 
and of his criminal aids, was duly opened on 
November 17, 1455; it closed only on July 7, 
1456. At the first session, pursuant to the Papal 
instruction, the delegates of the Holy See named 
Jean Brehol, the inquisitor general of France, 
an associate of the court, and ordered him to 
expedite the inquiry in a manner strictly con- 
formable with the law. To Jean Brehol, to 
Simon Chapitaut, the promoter of the cause, 



ROME'S JUSTICE 105 

and to Pierre Maugier and Guillaume Prevos- 
teau , the legal representatives of Jeanne's 
mother, brothers, and relations of whatever de- 
gree, not alone the Maid's family, not alone 
France, but indeed the world is indebted; for 
the sacrilegious injustice done to the peasant 
girl at Rouen, was an injustice done to universal 
humankind. 

At Rouen, in December, 1455, and in May, 
1456, nineteen witnesses were examined. Dur- 
ing January and February, 1456, a commission, 
visiting the Maid's home at Domremy, and the 
scene of her first entrance into public life, Vau- 
couleurs, interrogated thirty-four men and 
women, gray heads or gray beards, who, as 
children, or grown-up folks, had known her 
familiarly. Forty-one testified at Orleans, in 
February and March of the same year, and no 
less than twenty at Paris, during April and 
May. Sworn on the Holy Gospels to tell the 
truth, giving ear neither to love nor to hate, 
neither to interest, fear, nor favor, these one 
hundred and fourteen witnesses have left a 
record unique among the legal reports of mod- 
erns or ancients — a record moving a reader, now 
with wonder, now with joy, now with love, 
admiration, enthusiasm; now with hot indigna- 
tion, and, again and again, to compassionate 
tears. Telling the story of the Maid I have 
used this record, but here I shall more fully set 



106 JOAN OF ARC 

forth details confirming Jeanne's virtues, mis- 
sion, innocence, and the guile, the perfidy, 
the perjury, the profligacy, the atrocious villainy 
of those who conspired to take her life, and who 
did, sacrilegiously, murder her in the market- 
place at Rouen. 

Opening the case on November 17, I455» 
Pierre Maugier announced that his clients would 
make charges only against Cauchon and his 
chief assistants. The consultors who had voted 
for the Maid's condemnation he dismissed as 
dupes, or as cowards, who, fearing bodily chas- 
tisement, or exile, or a dungeon, or loss of place, 
or life, voted against their conscience to please 
the English. That many had reason to fear 
was proven beyond question. The Earl of War- 
wick, tutor of the boy King, Henry VI., was 
the Maid's jailor. To consummate the judicial 
murder of the girl who had vanquished the 
English on so many fields, Warwick organized a 
reign of terror in Rouen. Nicolas de Houppe- 
ville was summoned as a consultor. In conver- 
sation, he ventured to find fault with the method 
of procedure. Cauchon, not satisfied with re- 
fusing him admission to the court, imprisoned 
him. Guillaume de la Chambre signed the false 
record of the process, constrained and forced 
thereto by Cauchon. Because the friar, Isam- 
bard de la Pierre, the good soul who held up the 
crucifix before Jeanne, while the flames con- 



ROME'S JUSTICE 107 

sumed her incorrupted body, endeavored to 
bring out the precise meaning of certain answers 
she made to insidious questions, he was silenced, 
Warwick threatening to fling him into the Seine. 
Masters Minier, de Grouchet and Pigalle re- 
ceived a public reprimand for interrogating the 
Maid in a way that would permit her to explain 
the true intent of her testimony. Jean de la 
Fontaine, fearing they would condemn the Maid 
to death, gained admittance to the jail, and 
advised her to offer to submit to the Church and 
to a general council. So violent were the threats 
of Cauchon and Warwick when they heard of 
de la Fontaine's charitable act, that, believing his 
life in danger, he fled from the city. Jean de 
Chatillon, suspected of doubting the validity of 
the process, was ordered to absent himself from 
the sessions of the court. Doctor Jean Lohier, 
a canonist of repute, received an invitation from 
Cauchon, shortly after the opening of the trial, 
to review the evidence and to express an opinion 
thereon. Lohier, as honest as he was learned, 
pointing out the error and defects of the pro- 
ceedings, declared them radically invalid. Not 
caring to die by drowning — they threatened him 
with the Seine — Lohier, like de la Fontaine, ran 
away. Pierre Migiet was summoned before the 
Cardinal of Winchester to answer an accusation 
of being favorable to the Maid. Fearing for 



108 JOAN OF ARC 

his life, he excused himself, and was permitted 
to go free. 

Justice at Rouen, there was none. In the 
presence of Lord Talbot some one dared to speak 
fairly of the Maid's career. Drawing his sword 
the English noble would have killed the rash 
man on the spot had he not taken flight. Talbot 
pursued him, and he owed his life only to his 
escape into a holy place where he could claim 
the right of sanctuary. It was this very Talbot 
that met a memorable death on the field at Cha- 
tillon twenty-two years later. Wounded in the 
thigh, he fell from his horse. A company of 
French bowmen, surrounded him. He begged 
for his life, offering a ransom of gold. The 
French did not recognize him. They were giv- 
ing no quarter. On the field of Chatillon there 
was no holy place, no right of sanctuary. On 
rushed the soldiers, each one anxious to have a 
hand in the execution of a public enemy of 
France; and as they willed, they did. Count his 
wounds — no man could. 

Considering the many proofs of the tyranny 
exercised by Talbot, Warwick, Winchester and 
Cauchon, we cannot doubt the truth of the 
testimony of Guillaume Manchon, the chief clerk 
during the mock trial, who asserted there was 
not one among the consultors, chosen by the 
Bishop of Beauvais, that did not act through 
fear. Because they were evidently not free 



ROME'S JUSTICE 109 

agents, the counsel for the Maid's mother and 
family declined to pursue the consultors legally, 
as we have seen ; adding that, not only were they 
coerced but also duped. I have not hitherto 
fully exposed or duly reprobated the infamous 
methods of Cauchon and of his English masters. 
The story of how he duped learned and clever 
clerics, not excepting the doctors of the Univer- 
sity of Paris, is almost incredible. 

Besides Manchon, one Boisguillaume, and one 
Taquely, were appointed to report the testimony 
taken at the mock trial of the Maid. No person 
had accused her of any crime. There was not 
even ground for a suspicion of crime ; nay, more, 
when the court was organized, there was good 
ground for believing her to be a thoroughly 
good, if not a saintly, woman. The commission 
despatched by Cauchon to Jeanne's home 
gathered no testimony that was not most favor- 
able to her. Baulked in his effort thus to lay 
the foundation for charges against the Maid, 
Cauchon destroyed the evidence that should have 
freed her from jail, and so deprived the con- 
sultors of knowledge that should have been com- 
mitted to them. Seventy-two articles of accusa- 
tions, it will be remembered, were originally pre- 
sented to the consultors for their consideration, 
and they were led to believe that these articles 
were based on the Maid's own testimony. Man- 
chon, Boisguillaume and Taquely knew that 



110 JOAN OF ARC 

these articles, and the twelve articles that were 
subsequently introduced, were a fraud upon 
the consultors as well as upon the accused. 
During the process, with Cauchon's con- 
nivance, and at the instigation of the English, 
a body of unofficial clerks, concealed in the em- 
brasure of a window, behind curtains, made a 
special report. Their instructions were to record 
only such answers as could be construed un- 
favorably to Jeanne. The men who would con- 
sent to be parties to such a devihsh injustice were 
not above forging answers which the girl did not 
utter. Not satisfied with manufacturing these 
lying records, Cauchon insisted on falsifying the 
record which he pretended to recognize as of- 
ficial. Neither Manchon nor his assistants were 
permitted to set down the questions or answers 
truthfully. Cauchon controlled the text, order- 
ing them to suppress whatsoever displeased him. 
Out of the forged text and the falsified text, 
Cauchon concocted the Twelve Articles. He 
knew they were fraudulent, for Manchon, com- 
paring them with his own false record, noted in 
the margin many perversions. Though Cauchon 
read these corrections, he modified in nowise the 
lying text he had maliciously devised; and this 
lying indictment it was that, without ever read- 
ing it to the girl whose life depended on it, he 
submitted to the consultors at Rouen and else- 
where, and to the theologians of the University 



ROME'S JUSTICE 111 

of Paris. How they could conscientiously give 
a verdict, not having in their hands a single 
word of the Maid's testimony, is not easily ex- 
plained; but the fact is, that they convicted her 
solely on the forged and fraudulent articles pur- 
posely contrived to cheat them, and to ruin her. 
As we stood in the market-place at Rouen, by 
the pyre, and looked upon the girl, all aflame, 
and prayed and wept as she pleaded: "J^^u! 
Jesu!" I pointed to the inscription that sur- 
mounted the stake. You have not forgotten it: 
"Jeanne, who named herself the Maid, a liar, a 
pernicious woman, a deceiver of the people, a 
sorceress, a superstitious woman, a blasphemer 
of God, a presumptuous woman, an unbeliever, a 
boaster, an idolatrous, a cruel, a dissolute 
woman, an invocatrix of devils, apostate, schis- 
matic and heretic." After we had read this in- 
scription, I denounced it as "a lie — every word 
a lie." Did I exaggerate? Nay, more, when 
denouncing the men who devised the iniquitous 
inscription, I branded them as "liars, pernicious 
men, deceivers of the people, presumptuous and 
cruel," was I not most moderate in expression? 
As I develop the whole truth concerning the 
character and doings of Jeanne d'Arc, and 
further record the details of her inhuman perse- 
cution, I believe that you will, with one voice, 
declare that the authors of the foul inscription 



112 JOAN OF ARC 

deserved, and deserve, the most solemn execra- 
tion. 

From the day that Jeanne first appeared at 
Orleans, the English had but one name for her; 
a shameful name, befitting only the woman 
Jeanne was pursuing when St. Catharine's sword 
broke in her hands. After they had the Maid 
in their power, one can guess how they vilified 
her. Nobles, and even such a cleric as Jean 
d'Estivet — whose corpse was found in a sewer — 
did not spare her. And yet Cauchon knew she 
was chaste. Twice had her virginity been 
juridically established at Chinon, and once again 
at Rouen. With malice he concealed his knowl- 
edge from the consultors. The testimony of the 
soldiers who fought alongside of her is beautiful 
to read. "All the men at arms looked upon 
Jeanne as a saint," said one, under oath. "I was 
inflamed by her words and by the divine love 
that was in her," Jean de Metz testified, one of 
the brave fellows who accompanied her on the 
road from Vaucouleurs to Chinon. Bertrand de 
Poulangy, another of the party, swore that, when 
she spoke, he felt himself enthused. "For me," 
he added, "she was a messenger from God. She 
inspired me with reverence." Need we quote 
the testimony of Pasquerel, the Maid's chaplain 
from her entrance into Blois until her capture, 
that "she was filled with all the virtues." Had 
the English done no worse than vilify a helpless 



ROME'S JUSTICE 113 

girl, so godly, so stainless, it were shame enough ; 
but they did worse. Cauchon persecuted her, as 
I have related, because she would not put off 
male apparel. Her reason for refusing to 
change her dress was evident. Why did she pre- 
fer to be deprived of the sacraments rather than 
do Cauchon's bidding? He knew, as Warwick 
knew; for she had told them both, that, more 
than once, attempts had been made to despoil her 
of the virtue she so highly esteemed. The excuse 
for condemning the Maid to death was her re- 
sumption of the man's dress she had, most un- 
willingly, laid aside. Still, Cauchon, who re- 
opened the case against her, and who hurried her 
conviction, had her word for it, that the violence 
of a brute of an English lord had compelled her 
to do as, prudently, she had done. 

When I expressed my belief that you would, 
ere long, unanimously declare that the cowards 
who so belied Jeanne the Maid, deserved, and 
deserve the most solemn execration, I did not do 
justice to the feelings of disgust, of horror, of 
righteous hate, that now possess your soul. 
"Justice!" exclaimed the sobbing mother, as she 
knelt before Rome's delegates, in the Cathedral 
of Our Lady of Paris. Was ever Justice — 
divine Justice — more justifiably invoked! If "the 
immaculate blood of innocence oppressed cries 
out before the throne of the Lord," how loudly 
the mother's appeal: "Justice!" must have re- 



114 JOAN OF ARC 

sounded, as piercing the floor of heaven, it filled 
the court of the Most High God! 

"She was good, simple, gentle; she was so 
good, and I loved her so much; everybody loved 
her:" thus three of Jeanne's girl playmates testi- 
fied; and one related that their dear little friend 
"would gather in the poor, and lie down in the 
corner by the hearth so that they might sleep in 
her bed." "Everything that a good Christian 
should love, she loved," said a brave French 
nobleman, who had fought by her side; "she 
heard Mass every day that she could." Her 
page avouched that rarely did she eat more than 
twice in the day; "sometimes she ate but once, 
making a meal on a morsel of bread." "When 
she confessed, she wept," her chaplain testified, 
adding this beautiful trait: "she loved to go to 
communion with little children." And from an- 
other source we learn that, "at the sight of the 
body of Our Lord, she often wept with an abun- 
dance of tears." Do you wonder that the Maid's 
heart outlived the fiery flames? 

The marvellous story of Jeanne's military 
career, I have scantily told. There are men, 
who, pretending to believe in some sort of a God, 
still decline to endow their Supreme Being with 
a provident omnipotence. These illogical intel- 
lects cannot deny, they cannot eveil question the 
truth as proven by witness after witness. What 
explanation shall they give of the astounding 




■■Mnmi^BBnBHnRA 



JOAN OF ARC AT THE CONSECRATION OF THE KING 

Lepneveu, The Panth6on 



ROME'S JUSTICE 115 

achievements of the Maid? Only those who 
court ridicule would fall back on the convenient, 
though overworked, theory of hysteria. Thus 
the more sensitive and cautious sophists must be 
content with acknowledging that they are face 
to face with the inexplicable. The brave Bastard 
of Orleans was in no such plight. He had 
fought many a hard fight before seeing Jeanne 
d'Arc. After her murder, he fought, north, 
south, east and west, until the English had all 
been driven out of France — all, except those who 
died on its soil. What intelligent leaders and 
bold, trained, men-at-arms could do, battling, the 
Bastard well knew. And yet, on his oath, he 
swore: "I believe that Jeanne was sent by God. 
. . . In her deeds I saw the finger of God." 
The Duke d'Alengon, a warrior born, and whom 
no one dare charge with a lack of experience or 
of independence, asserted that "the bastilles of 
the enemy (at Orleans) were taken by a miracle 
rather than by the force of arms." . . . *Tt was 
a work from on high, not a human work." A 
soldier who stood by her, time and again, on 
the field of battle, the Chevalier d'Aulon, averred 
that "all the deeds of the Maid seemed to him 
divine and miraculous rather than otherwise, and 
that it was impossible that a maid so young could 
do such deeds without the will and the direction 
of Our Lord." This was the "sorcery" for 
which the English burned Jeanne d'Arc; the 



116 JOAN OF ARC 

"sorcery" of victories, miraculous rather than 
human. And though the English were more 
cruel, they were not more unreasonable than are 
the sophists who close their eyes, lest they may 
see "the finger of God" directing the deeds of 
His child. 

The defenders of the Maid's honor before the 
Papal Court charged Cauchon and his colleagues 
with not less than one hundred and one viola- 
tions of law and of equity. To Jeanne the 
Bishop of Beauvais had denied the right of hav- 
ing counsel; now, not a soul would consent to 
plead the cause of his dishonored honor. The 
Promoter of the diocese of Beauvais, summoned 
by the court, responded that: "while it seemed 
to him incredible that Cauchon had made use of 
the iniquitous methods charged in the one hun- 
dred and one articles of accusation, whatever 
might be the case, he submitted to the wisdom of 
the tribunal, and declined to put in an appear- 
ance." Even the natural heirs of the unjust 
judge, though summoned, refused to attempt to 
palliate his guilt. Through counsel, they pleaded 
that the matter did not concern them; acknowl- 
edged that, from public report, they had good 
reasons for believing that Cauchon had acted as 
an English partisan ; and they begged that what- 
ever was done should not be to their prejudice, 
invoking the benefit of a certain armistice 



ROME'S JUSTICE 117 

granted by the king after the conquest of Nor- 
mandy. 

To seek to extenuate Cauchon's guilt would 
have been vain. The list of his crimes is 
endless. By the canon law, the Maid, being a 
minor, should have been represented by a guard- 
ian. Of this right she was deprived. All the ex- 
aminations in the case should have been public. 
Many of them, as we have seen, were secret, 
and therefore lawless. The report of the trial, 
the falsified report which Cauchon stamped as 
official — was edited and attested long after 
Jeanne's death. I say "attested," though, in 
fact, Manchon and his assistants refused their 
signatures to a portion of the document. De- 
scribing the sad scene in the market-place of 
Rouen, I narrated that, having formally excom- 
municated the Maid, Cauchon handed her over 
to the secular power. By law, she should, there- 
upon, have been sentenced to death by the Eng- 
lish officials. As if, however, the devil had de- 
vised that, from first to last, injustice should 
triumph at Rouen, no civil sentence was pro- 
nounced upon Jeanne, but incontinently, she was 
tied to the stake and burned. Tried without a 
legal indictment, by a judge who had no juris- 
diction, upon charges that were based on no 
evidence, convicted by a jury whose members 
were either intimidated by threats, purchased by 
promises or money, or duped by a lying sum- 



118 JOAN OF ARC 

mary of a lying record; excommunicated sac- 
rilegiously, and burned without even the form of 
a judicial sentence — such is the history of the in- 
famous process, by means of which the English 
rid themselves of the young girl whom they 
hated and feared because of her glorious 
prowess, the gift of heaven and the reward of 
her virtue. 

Some one has ventured to say that, excepting 
the iniquitous trial of the Redeemer of man- 
kind, Jesus Christ, neither in any nation, nor at 
any time, has there been a trial so unrighteous, 
vicious, malevolent, so atrocious as that of 
Jeanne d'Arc. To disprove such a statement 
would be difficult, if not impossible. Still, how- 
ever unrighteous the trial, and however atro- 
cious the conviction and execution, the English 
were pleased with their work. Nine days after 
the Maid's execution, on the eighth of June, 
1431, to wit, the royal Council of Henry VI., in 
the name of the King of England, addressed a 
letter: "To the Emperor, the kings, dukes, and 
other princes of the whole of Christendom," in- 
forming these personages that, under a judg- 
ment of the secular power, Jeanne had been 
burned at the stake, and that, seeing her end 
approach, she had confessed "that the spirits she 
claimed to have converse with, were evil and 
deceitful spirits." To the lies of the record, a 
royal lie must be added. Jeanne had not dis- 



ROME'S JUSTICE 119 

avowed her 'Voices." Cauchon, pretending that 
secretly, in his presence, she had done so, tacked 
on another falsehood to the record; but the 
clerks of the court refused their attestation to 
this unholy fiction. The royal Council, in the 
King's name, lied deliberately. Nor was the 
Council satisfied with a single public advertise- 
ment of its complicity in the murder at Rouen. 
Again, on the twenty-eighth of June, in the name 
of Henry VL, a second letter was despatched: 
"To the prelates of the Church, the dukes, counts 
and to the other nobles, and cities of his King- 
dom of France." In this letter, the shocking 
truths and the falsehoods of the first were reiter- 
ated. Of the judicial murder of any man, or of 
any woman except Jeanne the Maid, has any 
government, other than Henry's, heralded its 
guilt, before the whole of Christendom? Not 
one. Good or evil, some spirit inspired the 
Maid's murderers to commit themselves irrevoc- 
ably. And so doing, they exposed their malice, 
from the day they paid almost twice the ransom 
of a king for the living body of the peasant girl 
of Domremy, until the day on which they flung 
the ashes of her bones, with her bleeding heart, 
into the river Seine. 

The policy followed by the King's Council, 
after Jeanne's death, was one of pure bravado. 
Conscious of the fraud, the forgery, the usurpa- 



120 JOAN OF ARC 

tion, the unparalleled infractions of canon law, of 
civil law, of natural law, through which they 
had effected their wicked purpose; and fearing, 
not merely the indignation of all just men, but 
also the juridical annulment of the lawless pro- 
cess, they sought to stifle the voice of justice by 
putting forward the English nation as the cham- 
pion of the crime of Rouen. Their sense of 
guilt, their anxiety, are still more apparent in 
the extraordinary letter issued in the name of 
Henry VI., three days after the first letter, and 
sixteen days before the second letter, to which 
we have already referred. Assuming the bluster- 
ing air of a bully, the royal Council hoped to 
intimidate not only the temporal princes of 
Christendom, but also the Vicar of Christ. By 
the document dated June 12, 143 1, the King of 
England guaranteed that "if any of the judges, 
doctors, masters, clerics, promoters, advocates, 
counsellors, notaries or others who had been 
occupied with and had listened to the process 
(of the Maid), should, on account of the said 
process, be put on trial before our Holy Father 
the Pope, the general council or the commis- 
sioners and delegates of the Holy Father, or of 
the general council, or before others, we will in 
court and outside of it, aid and defend, and pro- 
vide aid and defence for, all the aforesaid judges, 
masters, clerics, etc., and each one of them, at 
our proper cost and expense." The bad faith of 



ROME'S JUSTICE 121 

those who compassed the death of the Maid, this 
letter clinches. Had she been lawfully tried be- 
fore a regularly constituted ecclesiastical court, 
why should the King of England guarantee to 
aid and defend the judges of that court against 
the Pope? Why promise aid not only in court, 
but also outside? Their threat is a confession 
of conscious guilt. The court they organized to 
convict Jeanne d'Arc was an English shambles, 
and in no wise a tribunal of the Church. Craftily 
and wickedly, they abused the forms of eccle- 
siastical law in order to take a life, which, under 
the forms of their civil law, might have escaped 
from even their vindictive hate. 

Carefully and equitably the Papal delegates 
examined all this testimony. No less than eleven 
briefs of learned theologians and canonists, set- 
ting forth the facts of Jeanne's career or the 
irregularities of her trial, were presented to the 
court. From many experts, to whom all the evi- 
dence had been submitted, opinions were asked 
and received. Before deciding the case, Jean 
Brehol was charged with the duty of exhibiting, 
in an orderly fashion, all the questions at issue, 
and of resolving them in accordance with the 
doctrine and canons of the Church. This charge 
Brehol fulfilled, composing a masterly treatise of 
twenty-one chapters ; a work of the most compre- 
hensive and solid erudition. Having duly con- 
sidered Brehol's "Recollection," as the document 



122 JOAN OF ARC 

is officially called, the Pontifical delegates met in 
Rouen, and there held a public session on the 
first of July, 1456. On the following day the 
counsel for Jeanne's mother asked the court, 
heeding both the law and the evidence, to pro- 
claim, in the name of the Holy See, the iniquity 
and the nullity of the original process, and to 
repair, beseemingly, the wrongs done to the 
memory and the honor of the blameless victim 
of that process. 

Adjourning the court until the seventh of the 
month, the delegates meantime held further con- 
sultation with a number of the resident theolo- 
gians. On the morning of the seventh, in the 
great hall of the episcopal palace of Rouen, the 
court held a solemn session, at eight o'clock — 
the very hour fixed for Jeanne's appearance in 
the market-place twenty-five years before. Be- 
sides the Papal delegates, the Maid's brother 
Pierre was present; and, with these, the counsel 
for the Maid's mother, the court officers, and 
fourteen clerics, theologians, and lawyers, sworn 
to witness to the terms of the judgment. 

It was the Archbishop of Rheims, Jean Juvenal 
des Ursins, who read the decision of the court, 
whose tenor, in substance, is here set forth : "De- 
siring that this, our judgment, should emanate 
from the face of God, who weighs the souls of 
men, and who is the sole perfect arbiter, the 
sole absolutely infallible judge of His revela- 



ROME'S JUSTICE 123 

tions; who breathes where He wills, and who 
often chooses the feeblest to overturn the strong- 
est, and who, in fine, abandons not, in the days 
of trial and tribulation, those who hope in Him. 
We have studiously deliberated, with men 
equally scrupulous, competent and . experienced, 
on the records and conclusions of the process; 
and having acquainted ourselves with the solemn 
decisions of the learned men aforesaid, as formu- 
lated in treatises confirmed by references to 
many books, and in special memoires; and hav- 
ing compared many spoken and written opin- 
ions dealing with the form as well as the matter 
of the process, .... do say, and, justice re- 
quiring, we do declare, in the first place, that the 
Articles beginning with these words: *A certain 
woman, etc., etc.,' were and are viciously, deceit- 
fully, calumniously, fraudulently and maliciously 
compiled from the confessions and records of 
the trial of the deceased (Jeanne d'Arc) ; and we 
declare that the truth was suppressed, or mis- 
stated, so that, on essential points, those called 
as judges would be induced to hold an opinion 
contrary to that recorded; and we declare that 
many aggravating circumstances, that were not 
a part of the record, have been unlawfully added 
thereto, while, at the same time, many favorable 
and justificatory details have been omitted; and 
we say that the form of the expression was 



124 JOAN OF ARC 

altered in a manner affecting the sense of the 
ideas. 

''Wherefore, considering the aforesaid article 
to be tainted with falsity, deceit, calumny, and 
to be wholly at variance with the confessions 
from which a pretence was made of extracting 
them, we quash them, destroy them, annul them, 
and we ordain that, having been torn out of the 
aforesaid record, they shall be here judicially 
lacerated.* 

"And, in the second place, having diligently ex- 
amined the other parts of the same record, and 
especially the two sentences therein contained; 

and having most carefully measured 

the character of those who judged Jeanne, and 
of those by whom she was detained, and having 
seen the appeals and requests, often repeated, by 
which Jeanne declared that she submitted her- 
self and all her acts to the Holy Apostolic See, 
and demanded that the process be referred to 
the Sovereign Pontiff, and having examined an 
abjuration tainted with falsity and deceit; 
and having considered the treatises com- 
posed by experts in sacred and human law; 

and having given diligent attention to 

the whole and to each of the things that we had 
to see and to study, we, judges, sitting on our 
tribunal, and having God alone before our eyes, 
by this definitive sentence, which, and here we 

* The portions of the record here referred to were not destroyed; they 
were, however, "lacerated." 



ROME'S JUSTICE 125 

solomnly utter and formulate, do say, pronounce, 
decree, that the aforesaid processes and sen- 
tences, with the abjuration, their execution and 
all that follows, are manifestly stained with de- 
ceit, calumny, iniquity, inconsequence, and with 
errors of law and of fact; and we declare that 
they have been, are, and shall be null, void, 
without value or effect; and moreover, inasmuch 
as need be, and as reason commands, we quash 
them, annul them, destroy them, and make them 
absolutely void. 

"And we pronounce that neither Jeanne, nor 
her relatives, have contracted or incurred any 
note or mark of infamy through the said process, 
and we declare them, in the present and for the 
future, freed and cleared absolutely from all 
consequences of the said process: ordaining that 
the solemn intimation and execution of this, our 
sentence, shall ensue forthwith in this very city, 
in two places, to-day in the Place St. Ouen, 
after a general procession and a public sermon, 
and to-morrow in the old market-place, on the 
very spot where Jeanne was so cruelly and 
horribly smothered and burned. There a solemn 
sermon shall be preached, and a cross shall be 
planted in perpetuation of the memory of that 
honest girl and to excite the faithful to pray for 
her salvation, and for the salvation of all the 
dead. 

"To ourselves we reserve the right of publicly 



126 JOAN OF ARC 

executing this sentence, in an impressive manner, 
and for the edification of future times, in the 
cities and other notable places of this Kingdom, 
as we shall judge expedient." 

Gratefully, joyfully, I have listened to every 
word of the meet and equitable sentence pro- 
nounced by the Archbishop of Rheims. From 
the great hall I hasten, anxious to be among the 
first to reach the Place St. Ouen. On the way, I 
find myself repeating the words of Jean Thies- 
sart: "We have burned a saint." I look up- 
ward, the skies open, and, with the eye of my 
spirit, I see into heaven. And there I behold, 
lovingly embraced, three beauteous figures. 
Surely I recognize them: Catharine and Mar- 
garet, — and Jeanne the Maid, armored with a 
heavenly armor. Then I remember the wise 
counsel of Catharine and Margaret on the eve 
of Compiegne: "Resignation to God's will, what- 
ever come." A moment, and a new heaven 
opens, disclosing the archangel Michael and I 
feel that his glory is more dazzling than it was 
on that summer day, when, in the garden, by 
the church wall, the Maid heard a mysterious 
word breathed on the glowing air. No longer 
do I see. But in my ears resounds, and ever 
will resound, a chorus, not plaintive, not merry, 
and yet glad, whose refrain is: "Jesu! Jesu! 
Jesu!" 



VII 



IN PARADISE 

Solemnly, into the Place St. Ouen, marched 
Jean d'Arc, the Maid's brother, and Jean Brehol, 
with the bishops, the archbishop, and a lengthy 
procession of clerics, and of lay folk of high 
and low degree. The sentence of Rome's dele- 
gates, just pronounced in the archiepiscopal 
palace, is now formally promulgated. On that 
May day when a noisy rabble gathered here, ex- 
pecting to see the brave and holy young girl 
burned, a preacher abused her publicly. Now, 
before a devout assembly, a preacher honors the 
Maid — model of Christian virtue as well as of 
Christian patriotism. 

From the palace to the old fish-market, a like 

procession moved on the following day, the 

eighth of July. Yonder stood the pyre on which, 

horribly and cruelly, Jeanne was smothered and 

burned. Most equitably had the Papal court 

ordered that a preacher should also glorify her 

here; for was it not on this spot that Master 

Nicholas Midi used the shameful words : "J^^^^s 

has returned to her errors and crimes, like a 

dog that returns to its vomit"? The cross of 

127 



128 JOAN OF ARC 

expiation, ceremoniously raised, gave the lie to 
Nicholas Midi, for all time. 

After the departure of the archbishop and of 
the bishops, the townfolk, in groups, listened 
eagerly to the reminiscences of those who had 
witnessed the Maid's execution. On the faith of 
the word of friar Isambard, who held up the 
crucifix so that Jeanne might look upon it while 
she had eyes to see, one of the elder men related 
a notable story. As you remember, when the 
fire raged, and the Maid's sufferings were the 
most harrowing, an English soldier threw a 
fresh fagot into the blaze. "J^^u!" cried the 
dying Maid, just then, "J^su!" It was her final 
appeal to her loving friend. Down fell the 
soldier, as if struck by lightning. His fellows 
carried him off senseless. In the afternoon of 
the same day, penitent, he sought out the good 
friar, Isambard, and to him the soldier said that, 
believing the Maid to be as wicked as his leaders 
reported, he had sworn an oath to add a fagot to 
the pyre. His unchristian oath he had kept, but 
no sooner had the girl pronounced the name of 
Jesus, than a white dove rose from the flames 
and sped heavenward. He saw the dove, and 
forthwith his senses forsook him. To the friar 
he wished to confess his sins. The white dove 
was the soul of the Maid, he averred, and he 
would ever maintain that she was a good and 
valiant woman. 




EXECUTION OF JOAN OF ARC AT ROUEN 
Gordonnier, Luxembourg 



IN PARADISE 129 

Another group heard with new wonder the 
story of Jean Thiessart's lament and forebodings, 
as he left the market-place after the burning of 
the Maid. The narrative differed not at all from 
the one already recorded in these pages, except 
in a detail, which, purposely omitting heretofore, 
I shall now make known. When the secretary 
of the King of England halted one and .mother, 
on that sad day long ago, saying: "We have 
burned a saint, we are ruined," he paused for a 
moment only. Then he uttered a sentence more 
startling than the first: 'T believe her soul is in 
the hand of God, and I believe that all those who 
adhered to her condemnation are damned." 
Thus he spoke. Well may those who now listen 
to Jean Thiessart's words turn their eyes to 
heaven, with a feeling of awe. And yet, remem- 
bering the saying of the secretary of the King of 
England, we should likewise remember that the 
cross raised a moment ago on the spot where 
the Maid's incorrupted body was burned, is not 
merely a memorial of the honest girl. Before it, 
we have been invited by the Papal delegates to 
pray, not for her soul alone, but also for the 
salvation of all the other dead. The Church is 
merciful, with the mercy of her founder, the 
crucified Christ. Still, the words of Jean Thies- 
sart one can never forget. 

Thirteen days after the ceremonious promul- 
gation of the sentence of the Apostolic judges in 



130 JOAN OF ARC 

the market-place at Rouen, Paris witnessed a 
similar scene, the Bishop of Coutances and Jean 
Brehol leading the procession. Elsewhere in 
the cities and towns, honors were paid to the 
Maid's memory, and religious services were 
performed in expiation of the crime done against 
her person and her fame. Not at Rouen alone 
was- a cross upreared; and it pleases us to be- 
lieve the tradition that the stone cross which 
still stands in the Forest of St. Germain near 
Poissy, was a tribute from the gallant Bastard 
of Orleans, who saw "the finger of God" in all 
Jeanne's works. 

"Maid of Orleans" is a name she has long 
borne. When others neglected her, the good 
people of the city she miraculously freed from 
the enemies of France did not prove ungrateful. 
Year after year, ever since the deliverance of the 
city in 1429, on each eighth of May, up to the 
year 1793, clergy and people, bearing lighted 
candles, made pious stations along the route by 
which she led the men-at-arms, in God's name, 
to victory most glorious. On the morrow holy 
Mass was offered up for the repose of the souls 
of those who had died for their country. A mir- 
acle-play ended the celebration. After France had 
been united, towards the close of the fifteenth 
century, the eldest son of Pierre d'Arc, Jeanne's 
elder brother, every year came to Orleans to 
hold the first place in the procession. Before 



IN PARADISE 131 

him an acolyte bore a great candle of white 
wax, on which was painted a portrait of the 
Maid. The revolutionaries of 1793 , neither 
could nor would recognize a patriotism inspired 
by the God from whom Jeanne received a mis- 
sion to save France. During ten years the 
people of Orleans dared not, candle in hand, with 
hymn and prayer, celebrate the eighth of May. 
It was Napoleon, who, petitioned by Mgr. 
Bernier, bishop at the time, permitted the in- 
habitants of the city to renew the religious cere- 
monies of the old days. Since May, 1803, with 
much pomp, Jeanne's marvellous deed has been 
yearly commemorated. On the evening of the 
seventh, the chief magistrate of the city, accom- 
panied by civilians, carries the Maid's standard 
to the cathedral. There the bishop, in full ponti- 
ficals, receives it, and, amid the ringing of bells, 
the booming of cannon, sounds of martial music, 
and the chant of the Church, bears it to a place 
of honor. After Mass, on the morning of the 
eighth, a panegyric of Jeanne is preached in the 
cathedral, and then a devout procession files 
through the city to the site of the strong fortress 
the Maid captured on the evening of the seventh 
of May, 1429, — the fortress she would not have 
captured had she not forced the gates of Orleans 
against the will of the royal Council and with 
slight respect for the trusty nobleman whom 



132 JOAN OF ARC 

they had ordered to block the way of the ''child 
of God." 

Even with Cauchon's example before us, and 
with the recollection of the king's long neglect, 
not to say ingratitude, we shall find it hard to 
understand how, little more than a century after 
the judgment of the Papal court at Rouen, 
Frenchmen could have shown enmity to the bene- 
factress of France. And yet it is a fact that 
Frenchmen pretending to be the truest of pa- 
triots because of their profession of love for 
Christ, and because of their real hatred for His 
Church, dishonored the memory of the heroine 
that brought to Orleans "the best succor ever 
sent to knight or to city — the succor of the King 
of Heaven." Patriots, no man will call them; 
and still less. Christians. 

In 1567, the Huguenots captured Orleans. On 
the bridge connecting the city with the left bank 
of the Loire, the people of Orleans had, grate- 
fully and reverently, raised a monument to the 
Maid, a hundred years earlier. The artistic 
value of this monument, we cannot determine. 
It was of bronze, we know. Never did a Hugue- 
not conceive a memorial more patriotic or more 
Christian. At the foot of a cross, from which, 
pitifully, Christ looked down, the Maid knelt. 
Nigh to the bleeding body of her Divine Son 
stood the Virgin Mother, Mary, sorrowing. Fac- 
ing Jeanne, knelt the king of united France, 



IN PARADISE 133 

Charles VIL To civilized men, because of the 
portraits of the king who had made France and 
of the chaste and brave girl who crowned him, — 
if for no other reason — this monument should 
have appealed as an historical record. Of the 
King, the Huguenots were not wholly incon- 
siderate; but upon the effigies of the Mother of 
our Redeemer and of the Maid of Orleans, they 
had no mercy. One and the other they smashed. 
Three years later, freed from the Huguenots, 
the good people of Orleans mended the statue of 
the King, and recast the statue of the Maid. 
Modifying the group, they replaced the Mater 
Dolorosa with a Pieta; a seated figure of the 
Mother bearing in her lap the body of the dead 
Christ. Unmoved, this monument stood for one 
hundred and seventy-five years ; then, on account 
of the insecurity of the bridge, it was transferred 
to the town hall, and there it remained 
until 1 77 1. From this date until 1792, Jeanne's 
memorial was the chief ornament of one of the 
public places. In 1792, another set of bar- 
barians, — sectaries, forsooth, of "Fraternity" — 
dominated Orleans. They spared neither Christ 
nor the Virgin nor Jeanne. The monument was 
broken to pieces, melted and moulded into can- 
non. As the Huguenots showed some considera- 
tion for the King, so the revolutionaries were 
polite to the saviour of France. Officially they 
dubbed one of the cannon: "Jeanne d'Arc, sur- 
named the Maid of Orleans." 



134 JOAN OF ARC 

The era of a barbarous "Fraternity" having 
closed, a public subscription for a statue of 
Jeanne was opened by the authorities of Orleans, 
with the approval of Napoleon. Though more 
than one statue now testifies to the lasting grati- 
tude of the citizens, Orleans possesses no monu- 
ment as becoming as that which the Huguenots 
battered and shattered, or that which the Revolu- 
tion demolished. 

Like the monument at Orleans, Jeanne's fame 
has experienced many ups and downs. Notwith- 
standing the publicity given to the sentence of 
the delegates of the Holy See; notwithstanding 
the processions and the crosses; notwithstanding 
the written records, there were chroniclers and 
historians and poets and playwriters who con- 
tinued to defame the pious and valiant Maid. 
The Burgundians, in France, the English, in 
their land, slighted her virtues and denied her 
mission. She was pictured as a sham warrior, 
a mere tool of Charles VH., who manipulated her 
so as to fool superstitious soldiers into fighting 
for a desperate cause. Quickly was the memory 
of her noble life and marvellous deeds forgotten 
by men who pretended to learning and to critical 
powers. Slowly did even Frenchmen, as a 
nation, learn what Jean Brehol and the judges at 
Rouen had set down in writing on the seventh of 
July, 1456. 

Nor was it the English alone who, scouting 



IN PARADISE 135 

her mission, did not spare even the reputation of 
the chaste Maid. Jean d'Estive, of the foul 
tongue, left emulators behind him. To Shake- 
speare one could pardon what no honest man has 
ever pardoned in the unpatriotic, treacherous, 
mercenary and rotten "genius," Voltaire. His 
infamous poem, not the least of his infamies, 
even a "free-thinker" of our day has denounced 
as "a most sacrilegious debauch." A saint, how- 
ever perfect, leaves at least one enemy on earth, 
an enemy that never dies, the debauchee, — true 
"devil's advocate." 

Slowly, during the centuries, even in France, 
did the literate class learn as much about the 
Maid as the peasants of Vaucouleurs and Chinon 
knew, I might say, instinctively. The tradition 
of Jeanne's holiness, of her brave deeds, of her 
saving the country, had not been lost by the 
simple people; but it was only in the nineteenth 
century that the cultured acquired a full knowl- 
edge of her amazing career, her lovable qualities, 
and the villainous malice of which she was the 
victim. Now, she is not only a heroine of 
France, but also of the world; admired, loved in 
every land, even in England. 

Except as a "child of God," charged by 
Heaven with a providential mission, the career 
of Jeanne is inexplicable. The proof of her 
claims, as well as of her acts, is so clear and 
abundant that book-making infidels can cover 



136 JOAN OF ARC 

their discomfiture only by sentimental laudations 
of a girl, who must have honestly, if unreason- 
ably, cheated herself into believing that she was 
chosen by God to do His work. Indeed, the 
problem that confuses the infidel, worried so 
good a Catholic as the English historian, Lin- 
gard. 

When did Jeanne's mission end? Not a few 
argue that, having crowned Charles at Rheims, 
she had fulfilled the whole design of the King of 
Heaven. Her capture and death are pre- 
sented as proofs of this argument. Jeanne 
herself held otherwise. She did not lay 
down her arms, even when St. Catharine and St. 
Margaret let her know that she would fall into 
the hands of the enemy. As boldly as ever, she 
fought. Her death on the pyre, she did not fore- 
see until the very last. As late as the fourteenth 
of March, 143 1, she looked for a deliverance 
from jail. "St Catharine has promised me aid," 
said Jeanne "Whether I shall be delivered from 
prison, or whether, during the trial, something 
will happen and I shall be set free, I know not; 
but I think it will be one or the other." What 
follows is worthy of reflection : "My 'voices' tell 
me that I shall be delivered by a great victory; 
and they say to me: 'Accept everything with 
resignation; do not trouble about your martyr- 
dom, you will at length enter the Kingdom of 
Paradise.' My voices tell me this simply and 



IN PARADISE 137 

absolutely; it is infallibly true. By 'martyrdom,' 
I understand the pain and adversity I suffer in 
my prison. Whether I shall suffer a greater one, 
I know not; but I leave that to our Lord." 

On the pyre, Jeanne understood the full mean- 
ing of her "voices." "No," she cried out, after " 
joyously hailing St. Michael, "No, my Voices' 
did not deceive me, my mission was from God. 
Jesu ! Jesu !" That one should have a mission to 
crown a king, is quite intelligible to some people. 
How much greater the mission to reach the 
Kingdom of Paradise through martyrdom ! 

Jeanne did more than unite a kingdom, or 
crown a king : she revived religion and Christian 
morality in France. Her example was even 
grander than her victories. Has the effect of that 
example terminated? No; her mission did not 
close at Rheims. It began, truly, at the moment 
in which the wicked, though not impenitent, 
soldier saw the white dove spread its wings 
above the flame and fly to a heavenly home. 
The mission of a saint has no ending. God's 
design men shall know only as it is disclosed at 
the appointed times. 

Differing as to the extent of her mission, or 
even refusing to acknowledge its supernatural 
character, none the less have the critical, the 
doubting, the unbelieving, been compelled to ad- 
mire the chaste, the believing, the valorous girl, 
who, murdered at nineteen, left a record unique 



138 JOAN OF ARC 

in modern times. One need be neither a woman, 
nor young, and yet, reading the true life of the 
Maid, join her three playmates in saying: "She 
was so good and simple and sweet that I love 
her." Soldiers to-day are inspired by "the divine 
love that was in her," as were Jean de Metz and 
Bertrand de Pouligny, when they fought under 
her glorious banner. And how many there are 
who, though not men-at-arms, and though they 
hear only a faint echo of her voice, cannot help 
repeating with Bertrand, that "for us she is a 
messenger of God," and "a saint"; or, with the 
chivalrous Bastard of Orleans, that: "We be- 
lieve Jeanne was sent by God!" 

Literature and art, soiled as they have been 
by familiarity with the unclean, owe much 
to the ideal of cleanliness typified by Jeanne 
d'Arc — warrior, conqueror, victim, virgin. All 
the arts have paid homage to the Maid. Who 
shall say that her mission does not include the 
purification of "culture," outside as well as inside 
of France ! On the feast of the Epiphany, Jeanne 
was born ; as if it had been preordained that she, 
above others, should help to show forth the 
virtues of the Master of the wise, as well as the 
majesty of the King of Kings. 

However slighted, misrepresented or mis- 
understood elsewhere, the clergy and people of 
Orleans, when they were free, always cherished 
the Maid's memory, as we have seen ; and always 



IN PARADISE 139 

extolled her great, good deeds. During this cen- 
tury, the most eloquent orators, the most illustri- 
ous among the hierarchy, have vied one with 
another in celebrating, exalting, blazoning, the 
fame of the peasant girl of Arc. In the cathedral 
pulpit, foreigners have joined with Frenchmen 
in expiating the crime of Cauchon and of his 
English accomplices. From Orleans came the 
first formal appeal to Rome, where Jeanne's 
wrongs have been righted, to adjudicate her 
sanctity, and to elevate to the altar the despised 
and disgraced peasant who was burned to 
ashes, — all except her heart, — in the Rouen fish- 
market. 

This appeal, initiated on May the eighth, 
1869, by the renowned Mgr. Dupanloup, who 
then added dignity to the See of Orleans, was 
supported by twelve other members of the 
French hierarchy. Pius IX., of happy memory, 
graciously received their petition, and authorized 
Mgr. Dupanloup to open a judicial process, ac- 
cording to the regular forms of the Church. 
Owing to the Franco-Prussian war, the "Process 
of the Ordinary" was not begun until 1874. 
Two years later the records of this preliminary 
inquiry were carried to Rome by the Bishop of 
Orleans and there committed to the Congrega- 
tion of Rites. After the death of the eminent 
Dupanloup, his successor, Mgr. Coullie, insti- 
tuted a second Process of the Ordinary, with 



140 JOAN OF ARC 

the purpose of firmly establishing the heroism 
of the virtues practised by Jeanne. The official 
minutes of the second investigation reached 
Rome only in December, 1885. Three years 
later, still another inquiry was prescribed by the 
bishop, a complementary process intended to dis- 
cover whether miracles had been performed 
through the Maid's intercession, and, if so, to 
authenticate them by indisputable evidence. 
Meantime the Catholic world had not been silent. 
From near and far the Apostolic See was peti- 
tioned to expedite the cause of the Maid; no 
less than fifteen cardinals, twenty-three arch- 
bishops, one hundred and eighty-three bishops, 
ten cathedral chapters and eight generals of re- 
ligious orders uniting in this prayer. 

The process of the Maid had at length reached 
the stage at which the Congregation of Rites 
could posit the question: Is the cause of Jeanne 
d'Arc, as presented, in a condition allowing it to 
be officially introduced into the court of Rome? 
All the documents were submitted to the pro- 
moter of the Faith, Mgr. Coprara, and his ob- 
jections having been duly answered by the advo- 
cates of the cause, a printed copy of the whole 
process was placed in the hands of each member 
of the Congregation, early in January, 1894. 
Following the custom, at least forty days should 
have elapsed before the cardinals voted on the 
question: Should the commission of the intro- 



IN PARADISE 141 

duction of the cause be signed? On the answer 
to this question, much depended. An affirmative, 
provided the Holy Father confirmed it by his 
signature, would "assure the world that the fame 
of Jeanne d' Arc's sanctity had been judicially 
approved, and that henceforth she might be 
saluted as Venerable. 

The mind of His Holiness, Leo XUI., was 
revealed by his action convoking the Congrega- 
tion of Rites in an extraordinary session on the 
twenty-seventh of January, 1894, long prior to 
the expiration of the customary forty days. The 
report of the cause having been presented by 
Cardinal Parocchi, a ballot was taken, and by a 
unanimous vote the question proposed was de- 
cided in the affirmative. Forthwith a decree was 
drawn up by the Prefect of the Congregation, 
Cardinal Aloisi Masella, and signed by the Pope. 

"Venerable Servant of God,'' such was the title 
conferred upon the Maid by the act of the Con- 
gregation and of His Holiness, as the decree of 
January, 1894, specified. The process for her 
beatification was next in order. Discussing the 
preliminaries in the cause of the Maid's beatifi- 
cation, on the fifth of May, 1896, after listening 
to the report presented by Cardinal Parocchi, 
the Congregation of Rites determined that no 
unauthorized public worship of Jeanne precluded 
the Holy See from considering the cause for 
her beatification. 



142 JOAN OF ARC 

On April ii, 1909, the Maid was declared 
blessed by His Holiness Pope Pius X. and on 
April 5, 1919, took place the solemn reading of 
the decree of approval of the miracles for the 
canonization of the Blessed Jeanne. The reading 
of the decree de tuto may be expected quite soon, 
and the canonization itself possibly in the autumn. 



"Shed no tears for the Maid! The children 
of her Lord, neither men nor women, need weep 
for her. Believe firmly that the God of Heaven 
will aid her still. He is the God of Majesty, and 
bears in the palm of His hand the globe of the 
world, from generation to generation." Thus, 
when some grieved over Jeanne, as we looked 
upon her while the flames consumed her youth- 
ful body, I ventured confidently, to speak. Had 
I no other ground for my confidence, I should 
have depended on the promise of Michael, Mar- 
garet and Catharine, when, after three years 
of urging, they finally insisted that she should 
seek out the King of France and free the King- 
dom. "How shall I," she asked of her heavenly 
guides, "how shall I, who am only a peasant 
girl, give orders to men-at-arms ?" Their answer 
was: "Child of God, great-hearted child, you 
needs must go ; God will aid you !" The promise 
was not for a day. You have seen it hold good 



IN PARADISE 143 

until the Maid entered Paradise; you see it hold 
good now, the Maid being in Paradise. 

Her saints promised her heaven if she bore 
her "martyrdom" with resignation, and Jeanne 
believed them as infallible. How and why she 
believed, let us see. The judges asked her this 
question : "Since your Voices' have foretold that 
you shall enter Paradise, do you hold it for cer- 
tain that you shall be saved, and that you shall 
not be damned in hell?" Then the Maid an- 
swered: "I believe firmly, just as my voices have 
said to me, that I shall be saved, provided that 
I preserve my virginity of body and soul." Most 
certainly the answer of a saint! God was with 
Jeanne d'Arc, and she was with God. The aid 
He wondrously favored her with in battle was 
not His only favor to the "child of God," nor 
was it the most noteworthy. Neither the rescue 
of Orleans, nor the coronation of Rheims, nor 
the awakening of France, nor the injustices suf- 
fered at Rouen ; neither patriotism nor gallantry, 
alone, could have won for Jeanne the title of 
"Saint." Virtue, heroic virtue, obtained this 
glorious guerdon for the Maid of Orleans; and 
none receive a recompense so great except those 
whom God has aided constantly. 

The executioner trembled as he looked upon 
the Maid's bleeding heart; nor could the waters 
hide it from his view. To-day I see it, as you 
do, as he did. The Seine has not hidden the 



144 JOAN OF ARC 

heart from our sight. Firm it is and whole, 
unscathed by the blaze of burning wood, oil and 
sulphur. As we scan it no fear moves us, but 
rather reverence, mingled with gratitude and 
with a gentle joy. Was the red, unblemished 
heart a sign? more than one bystander asked, 
before it was flung, all bleeding, into the river. 
None dared answer then ; but now we may 
frankly and securely maintain that the ruddy 
heart was a sign, — a sign that, with the white 
dove, the heroic, virginal soul of Jeanne d'Arc, 
darting from the hot flames at Rouen, swiftly 
sought and rapturously entered through the 
gates of Paradise. 

THE END. 



